'ped  below 


M. 


SOUTHERN  BRANCH. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

iLOS  ANGELES,  CALIF. 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 


MENTAL  CAUSES 
OF  ACCIDENTS 


BY 

BOYD  FISHER 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
1922 


52147   Spl^i'M 


COPYEIGHT,  1922,  BY  BOYD  FISHER 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


CAMBRIDGE  •  MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED  IN  THE  U.S.A. 


tr' 


PREFACE 

^  Writing  a  book  is,  of  course,  an  educational 
'i  experience.  The  author  always  comes  out  of  it 
*^  knowing  much  more  than  when  he  went  in.  It 
is  a  poor  subject,  indeed,  that  does  n't  broaden 
and  deepen  before  the  delighted  eyes  of  the 
4  writer  as  he  gives  months  to  a  close  examination 
^  of  its  meanings  and  relations. 

The  pleasure  which  I  found  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  theme  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  a 
>  topic,  which  began  as  a  limited  study  of  the 
J  mental  causes  of  accidents  for  the  instruction  of 
r  safety  men,  quickly  unfolded  itself  as  a  pecul- 
t'iarly  direct  and    revealing  approach    to  the 
4  whole  problem  of  psychology  in  industry.  The 
minds  of  men  disclose  themselves  only  in  action. 
A  text  on  psychology  may  be  formulated  in 
terms  of  general  principles  and  theories  without 
reference  to  the  particular  actions  which  gave 
rise  to  these  generalizations.  But  actions,  often 
dramatic  actions  —  the  amusing,  pathetic,  or 
tragic  struggles  of  real  human  beings  to  find 

V 


PREFACE 

comfort  and  happiness  —  were  the  only  source 
of  information  for  these  dry-as-dust  formulae. 
Just  as  the  drama  is  a  highly  useful  device  for 
teaching  and  for  public  discussion,  so  the  dra- 
matic incident  is  the  best  material  for  the  study 
of  mental  laws.  To  give  the  reader  a  recon- 
structed action  as  the  basis  for  a  theory  is  not 
alone  to  render  the  subject  easy  and  interesting 
for  him,  but  also  to  permit  him  to  form  his  own 
theories  in  cooperation  with  or  opposition  to  the 
author. 

An  accident  is  the  most  dramatic  and  in- 
forming occurrence  of  factory  life.  It  happens 
only  as  the  result  of  some  interruption  of 
routine  —  human  nature  breaks  through,  so  to 
speak,  and  shows  itself  in  some  fashion  that  all 
may  comprehend.  And  in  the  unprompted 
reactions  of  the  victim  after  he  has  been  hurt, 
the  doings  of  fellow  workers,  of  bosses,  and  of 
the  sufferer's  family,  there  are  often  further 
interesting  disclosures  of  minds  off  guard. 

It  is  apparent,  therefore,  that  any  adequate 
inquiry  into  the  mental  side  of  industrial 
accidents  will  come  close  to  being  a  well- 
rounded  study  of  psychology  in  industry.  If  it 

vi 


PREFACE 

lose  anything  by  being  restricted  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  accidents,  it  is  likely  to  compensate 
by  the  vividness  of  its  material. 

If  regarded  only  as  a  phase  of  the  subject, 
accident  prevention  is  certainly  the  most 
practical  approach  to  psychology  in  industry. 
Production  men  have,  perhaps  with  good 
reason,  been  rather  skeptical  about  the  theories 
of  the  mental  testers,  social  welfare  experts, 
and  psychiatrists,  and  have  hesitated  not  only 
to  buy,  but  even  to  use  their  services.  But,  by 
State  law,  industry  is  taxed  for  accidents  and 
rewarded  for  reducing  them.  So  much  of 
psychology  as  is  useful  in  securing  lower  in- 
surance rates  has  a  definite  money  value,  and 
no  practical  man  will  exclude  it  from  his  favor. 

If  industry  will  go  only  so  far,  the  psychol- 
ogist will  be  content.  The  scientist  asks  only 
a  chance  to  demonstrate.  He  knows  how 
economical,  after  all,  is  truth  —  with  how  little 
change  or  adaptation  he  can  transfer  his  efl^orts 
from  one  object  to  another.  Little  is  required 
for  mental  testing  and  for  mental  hygiene  that 
will  not  have  been  rendered  familiar  for  acci- 
dent prevention.  Indeed,  Dr.  George  K.  Pratt, 

vii 


PREFACE 

of  the  Massachusetts  Society  for  Mental 
Hygiene,  who  has  read  and  helpfully  criticized 
this  essay,  has  stated  his  conviction  that  acci- 
dent prevention,  from  the  psychological  side  is 
the  best  entering  wedge  for  mental  hygiene  in 
industry. 

It  is  the  writer's  hope  that,  being  himself  an 
industrial  man,  he  has  been  able  to  make  this 
book  interesting  and  familiar  tor  safety  men, 
foremen,  and  members  of  safety  committees. 
It  is  his  expectation,  furthermore,  for  the 
reasons  already  given,  that  it  will  be  useful  as 
text  material  for  classes  in  applied  psychology 
and  in  industrial  relations.  In  the  belief  that 
some  practical  men  will  find  in  this  discussion 
a  stimulus  to  further  study  in  psychology,  I 
have  added  a  supplementary  chapter  on  what 
to  read  in  psychology. 

The  thanks  of  the  author  are  due  to  Mr.  W. 
H.  Cameron  and  to  Mr.  Sidney  J.  Williams,  of 
the  National  Safety  Council,  to  Mr.  E.  M. 
Very,  editor  of  Builders,  for  literary  criticism; 
to  Dr.  A.  B.  Emmons,  3d,  of  the  Harvard 
Medical  School,  to  Mr.  Hilton  Howell  Railey, 
and  to  Miss  Marion  Myers,  for  statistical  help. 

viii 


FOREWORD 

Many  of  the  sponsors  for  the  Safety  Movement 
in  America  —  the  men  supervising  the  safety 
problems  in  the  workshops  and  in  public  places 
—  have  lamented  the  absence  of  a  psychological 
study  of  the  fundamental  problem  of  safety 
education.  The  safety  man  in  the  plant  has  felt 
the  need  for  an  interpretation  of  the  mental 
attitudes  of  his  associates  and  workers  —  to 
understand  the  root  causes  of  seemingly  inex- 
plicable mind  actions  and  reactions  to  working 
conditions  that  cannot  be  solved  by  mechanical 
formulas.  Many  of  these  safety  leaders  have 
been  puzzled  in  understanding  the  mental 
attitude  of  these  men  who  get  hurt  or  killed, 
and  they  have  had  difficulties  in  planning  their 
educational  programmes  to  encourage  the 
individual  to  react  fearlessly  and  automatically 
toward  safe  practices. 

Mr.  Boyd  Fisher's  book  is  a  distinctly  new 
contribution  toward  the  study  of  accident 
causes  and  will  be  an  invaluable  aid  to  students 

ix 


FOREWORD 

and  to  safety  men  on  the  jobs.  Every  one 
interested  in  understanding  the  mental  problem 
of  the  individual,  who  should  be  interested  in 
his  own  safety,  should  own  and  read  a  copy  of 
this  book. 

W.  H.  Cameron 

Managing  Director 

National  Safety  Council 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Unguarded  Mind  I 

Ignorance,  predisposition,  inattention,  depres- 
sion, and  preoccupation  as  the  main  mental  causes 
of  accidents.  The  way  accidents  happen.  The 
man  who  gets  hurt. 

II.  The  Puzzled  Mind  28 

Ignorance  of  the  English  language,  inexperience, 
and  mental  deficiency  as  barriers  to  understand- 
ing and  knowing  how  to  deal  with  accident  haz- 
ards.  Finding  the  greatest  common  factors. 

III.  The  Misguided  Mind  56 

Defects  of  the  less-considered  senses  and  of  sense 
relationships,  —  slow  reaction  times,  unstable 
rhythms,  lack  of  balance,  inaccurate  position 
sense,  etc.,  which  furnish  the  mind  with  insuffi- 
cient or  unreliable  information  about  dangers. 

V 

IV.  The  Stubborn  Mind  80 

"Attitudes,"  such  as  cheerful  recklessness,  dis- 
trust of  doctors,  unwillingness  to  accept  instruc- 
tion from  employers,  which  stand  as  barriers  to 
safety  ideas.  Subconscious  errors  growing  out  of 
departures  from  standardized  conditions.  Cor- 
rectives of  faulty  attitudes. 

V.  The  Involuntary  Mind  112 

Faulty  habits,  which  cause  the  mind  and  hand  to 
fail  and  the  morale  to  weaken  at  the  critical  time 
of  danger.  Hurry  as  a  habit.  Certain  safe  habits. 

xi 


6> 


CONTENTS 

The  Diverted  Mind  138 

Confusion,  due  to  management  errors,  and  dis- 
tractions, due  to  disturbances,  resentment,  or 
boredom,  as  causes  of  inattention  in  the  presence 
of  unsafe  conditions. 


VII.  The  Troubled  Mind  167 

Worry,  nervous  tension,  and  various  degrees  of 
insanity  as  causes  of  preoccupation  at  a  time  of 
danger. 


J/IIIy  The  Physical  Mind  191 

Disease,  drugs,  drink,  and  depressing  conditions 
of  ventilation  and  illumination  in  the  plant  as 
causes  of  mental  ineffectiveness  in  dealing  with 
unsafe  conditions. 

IX.  The  Tired  Mind  221 

Monotonous  conditions  of  routine,  confining  fac- 
tory labor,  producing  "energy  blockade,"  com- 
monly confused  with  fatigue,  as  probable  cause 
of  depression  and  accident.  Offset  and  reduction 
of  "fatigue"  and  tension. 

X.  Accident  Hygiene  255 

Individual  treatment,  and  adjustment  of  cases  of 
mental  error  as  valuable  supplement  to  present 
generalized  methods  of  accident  prevention. 

XI.  The  Self-Guided  Approach  to  Psychol- 
ogy 287 

Citation  of  books  for  the  layman  who  wishes  to 
acquire  the  fundamentals  of  psychology  for  use  in 
industrial  management. 


XU 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 


MENTAL  CAUSES 
OF  ACCIDENTS 

• 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

Are  we  to  blame  for  our  minds  ?  Even  girls  with 
high-heeled  shoes  should  not  have  fallen  down 
that  stairway.  It  was  a  straight  flight,  placed 
where  you  would  expect  it  to  be;  it  was  well 
lighted  and  guided  by  a  hand  rail.  The  steps 
were  wide  enough  and  covered  with  safety 
treads.  Surely,  it  had  no  hazard  in  itself;  and 
yet  clerks,  perfectly  familiar  with  the  fact  that 
others  had  been  injured  there,  and  accustomed 
to  using  the  stairs  every  day,  on  several  occa- 
sions plunged  headlong  the  whole  length  of  the 
flight.  We  held  many  indecisive  conferences  at 
the  Aluminum  Castings  Company  about  these 
stairs,  which  seemed  to  have  the  very  devil  in 
them.  One  day  we  happened  to  measure  the 
width  of  the  steps  to  compare  with  another 

I 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

flight.  We  were  surprised  to  learn  that  the 
first  step  below  the  landing  was  two  inches 
wider  than  all  the  rest  below  it.  The  secret  was 
then  out.  A  girl  would  take  her  first  step  down, 
looking  where  she  put  her  foot,  and  adjusting 
it  to  the  usual  position  on  the  edge  of  the  step. 
Subconsciously  she  noted  the  width,  and  as- 
sumed that  all  of  the  other  steps  were  exactly  as 
wide.  Then  she  placed  her  foot  on  the  next 
lower  step  two  inches  too  far  forward,  lost  her 
balance,  and  came  tumbling  down  to  the  bottom. 

The  remedy,  of  course,  was  to  extend  the 
landing  out  two  inches  so  that  the  steps  were, 
then,  all  of  the  same  width.  But,  granting  the 
necessity  of  doing  that,  one  could  not  properly 
say  that  the  steps  were  wrong.  Taken  singly, 
they  were  all  right.  The  cause  of  the  accident 
really  lay  in  the  subconscious  mental  operation 
of  the  person  using  these  stairs.  And  this  case 
is  suggestive  of  many  situations  in  which  acci- 
dents occur  because  a  perfectly  normal  auto- 
matic assumption  by  the  mind  does  not  accord 
with  the  realities. 

C.  R.  Lobs,  the  safety  man  of  the  Midvale 
Steel  Company,  has  said,  "The  big  percentage 

2 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

of  accidents  falls  in  that  class  where  the  diffi- 
culty, and  the  manner  of  correcting  it,  lie  in  the 
man's  mind."  Mr.  Lobs  has  substantiated  in 
his  own  experience  the  oft-stated  fact  that  70 
per  cent  of  the  accidents  are  traceable  directly 
to  the  worker's  fault.  As  he  divides  them  up 
further,  he  finds  that  60  per  cent  are  directly 
the  blame  of  the  man  hurt;  10  per  cent,  a  fellow 
workman's  fault;  29^  per  cent,  "nobody's 
fault,"  and  only  one-half  per  cent  the  com- 
pany's fault.  He  goes  on  to  classify  the  types  of 
faults  of  workmen,  as  — 

Failed  to  use  provided  safety  device. 
Failed  to  use  proper  tool  or  appliance. 
Improper  method  of  doing  work. 
Violation  of  rules,  such  as,  operating  the  wrong 

machine. 
An  improper  act. 

If  we  consider  those  cases  where  *'the  cause 
of  the  accident  and  the  manner  of  correcting  it 
lie  in  the  man's  mind,"  as  being  faults  of  the 
worker,  and  subject  to  blame  or  discipline,  then 
perhaps  we  can  rightly  say  that  the  company  is 
responsible  only  for  one-half  per  cent  of  the 
accidents. 

But  are  mental  errors  culpable?  Are  we  to 

3 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

blame  for  our  minds  ?  The  laws  of  most  States 
not  only  hold  manufacturing  companies  liable 
for  accidents  occurring  on  unguarded  ma- 
chines, but  also  require  them  to  provide  safe- 
guards. Is  n't  it  possible  to  consider  poorly 
equipped  minds  as  unguarded  machines? 

In  the  matter  of  industrial  accidents,  we 
seem  to  take  for  granted  that  the  70  per  cent 
of  men  who  get  hurt  of  "their  own  fault"  do  so 
willfully.  We  set  the  cause  down  always  as 
"  carelessness  "  —  which  means  that  we  assume 
that  they  knew  better,  but  deliberately  went 
wrong.  It  would  be  reasonable,  if  this  were  so, 
to  punish  them,  or,  at  least,  to  deny  them  com- 
pensation. Indeed,  until  recently  they  were 
denied  compensation.  Under  the  common  law, 
workmen  could  always  get  restitution  for  in- 
jury which  was  clearly  established  as  the  fault 
of  the  employer.  They  were  denied  redress, 
however,  when  there  was  "  contributory  negli- 
gence," or  fault  of  a  "fellow  servant,"  or,  some- 
times, "assumption  of  risk"  by  the  employee. 
These  defenses,  allowed  the  employer,  were 
based  upon  the  conception  of  a  workman's  pre- 
sumed knowledge  of  the  sources  of  danger  and 

4 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

his  duty  to  avoid  them.  If  it  were  reasonable  to 
hold  the  worker  responsible  in  such  cases,  the 
Workmen's  Compensation  Acts,  which  require 
employers  to  pay  for  all  injuries,  are  unjust. 
Perhaps,  in  some  cases,  theoretically,  they  are 
—  it  is  idle  to  debate  that  question;  but  the 
point  to  note  here  is  that  the  law  seems  to 
assume  that  men  are  not  always  responsible  for 
their  own  acts. 

Of  late  years  this  assumption  has  been  mak- 
ing headway  in  dealing  with  delinquents  in 
general.  Not  only  has  the  insanity  plea  in 
murder  cases  been  allowed  in  an  ever-widening 
range  of  circumstances,  but  the  degree  of  moral 
responsibility  for  crime  has  been  weighted  in 
many  other  respects.  We  see  it  in  the  classifi- 
cation of  prisons  —  one  for  first  offenders,  an- 
other for  feeble-minded  criminals,  another — • 
called  a  reform  school  —  for  youthful  offenders, 
another  for  wayward  girls,  and  so  on.  We  see  it 
in  the  amelioration  of  the  sentence  for  crime, 
through  the  juvenile  court  system,  through  the 
parole  system  (which  deals  with  an  unbeliev- 
able proportion  of  offenders),  and  through  the 
indeterminate  sentence  system. 

5 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

The  reason  and  justification  for  such  leniency 
are  found  in  the  accumulating  statistics  on  the 
relation  between  crime  and  feeble-mindedness, 
insanity,  and  other  causes  beyond  the  imme- 
diate control  of  the  wrong-doer. 

Dr.  Walter  S.  Fernald,  of  the  Massachusetts 
School  for  Feeble-Minded,  estimates  that  **at 
least  25  per  cent  of  the  inmates  of  our  penal 
institutions  are  feeble-minded."^  Various  sur- 
veys of  the  white-slave  traffic  estimate  that 
from  40  to  60  per  cent  of  this  class  of  women  are 
defectives. 

Dr.  William  Healy,  in  an  analysis  of  the 
cases  of  668  juvenile  offenders,  who  came  before 
him  in  the  Chicago  juvenile  court,  found  that 
mental  defects  or  mild  forms  of  insanity  were 
responsible  for  35  per  cent  of  the  cases,  and 
contributory  in  9  per  cent  more.  "Faulty  en- 
vironment "  made  up  most  of  the  other  causes, 
and,  since  a  child,  at  least,  is  not  responsible  for 
his  environment,  nearly  all  of  Dr.  Healy's  cases 
warranted  another  type  of  treatment  than  mere 
punishment.^ 

*  Michael  F.  Guyer,  Being  Well  Born  (Ind.  1920),  p.  266. 
^  William  Healy,  The  Juvenile  Delinquent  (Boston,  1920), 
p.  158. 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

When  mental  unsoundness  is  recognized  as 
just  ground  for  discriminating  between  offend- 
ers against  the  law,  have  we  not  good  reason, 
also,  to  recognize  the  existence  of  such  grounds 
in  the  matter  of  accidents?  Perhaps  we  have 
been  taking  too  much  for  granted  about  the 
capacity  of  workers  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
Our  safety  methods  have  all  been  based  upon 
the  presumed  need  of  bringing  home  to  workers 
a  sense  of  responsibility  —  or  of  scaring  them 
into  looking  out  for  themselves. 

It  is  time  that  we  took  a  hint  from  the  prog- 
ress which  has  been  made  in  dealing  with  other 
forms  of  social  difficulty,  and  treated  accidents, 
not  as  delinquencies,  but  as  forms  of  mental 
error.  The  mental  factors  in  accidents  may  be 
made  known,  and,  where  they  can  be  corrected 
and  are  not  counteracted  by  mental  safeguards, 
at  least  part  of  the  blame  for  accidents  which 
they  cause  should  be  assumed  by  the  employer. 
Merely  to  say  that  a  workman  "  failed  to  use 
the  proper  safety  device  "  does  not  sufficiently 
analyze  the  situation.  If  possible,  we  must  get 
at  and  correct  the  state  of  mind  which  produced 
this  error. 

7 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

The  man  who  gets  hurt.  If  ten  men  are  vacci- 
nated at  one  time,  there  will  be  perhaps  three 
with  whom  the  operation  will  not  "take."  Of 
any  number  of  people  exposed  to  a  contagious 
disease,  a  portion  will  succumb  to  it,  and  others 
will  remain  immune.  So,  too,  with  mental  in- 
fluences. Not  all  men  can  be  moved  by  the 
same  causes.  In  the  matter  of  accidents,  there 
are  men  who  appear  to  be  born  unlucky,  be- 
cause, without  especial  demerit,  they  are  always 
getting  hurt.  We  ought  not  to  proceed  to  the 
analysis  of  the  reasons  why  men  fall  into  error 
without  pointing  out  that  there  are  certain 
types  of  men  who  are  especially  susceptible  of 
error. 

Oftentimes  they  are  extremely,  able,  respon- 
sive, and  conscientious  men,  not  the  sort  whom 
we  should  be  likely,  in  advance,  to  brand  as  ac- 
cident risks.  But  it  is  nevertheless  true  that 
there  are  particular  temperaments  which  are 
not  safe,  or  which  require  special  treatment  to 
be  kept  safe. 

There  have  been  attempts  to  discover 
whether  particular  race  inheritances  produce 
any  noticeable  effects  on  the  accident  rate,  but 

8 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

to  date  no  tables  have  proved  that  one  race  has 
any  advantage  over  another  in  this  regard.  It 
has  been  shown  that  Jewish  people  suffer  from 
two  to  three  times  as  much  from  diabetes  as 
any  other  race,  because  of  their  nervous  tem- 
peraments and  their  openness  to  worry.  This 
might  be  thought  symptomatic  of  a  tendency 
to  get  hurt,  as  the  result  of  acting  excitably. 
And  yet,  there  appear  to  be  offsets  which 
equalize  any  such  tendency,  if  it  exists. 

There  does  exist  an  age  tendency  to  acci- 
dent. Very  young  or  very  old  workers  are  in- 
jured more  frequently  than  middle-aged  ones. 
Men  from  20  to  29  years  old  get  hurt  more 
frequently  than  men  from  30  to  39  years  old. 
In  a  period  of  five  years  in  a  large  steel  plant 
Chaney  and  Hanna  reported  ^  that  men  in  the 
younger  group  sustained,  yearly,  177  accidents 
per  1000  300-day  workers,  as  against  162  per 
1000  among  the  older  group,  and  that  in  an- 
other plant  the  accident  frequency  among  the 
younger  men  was  234.2  per  1000  against  178.7 
per  1000  of  the  older  group.  Other  tables  point 

'  The  Safety  Movement  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Industry, 
U.S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bui.  234. 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

to  the  same  conclusion  —  that  immaturity  is  a 
direct  contribution  to  accident. 

The  special  accident  liability  of  old  men  is 
indicated  in  all  tables  of  accidents  by  length 
of  service  groups.  Note  the  tables  given  in 
Chapter  11,  which  seem  to  indicate  a  rising 
accident  rate  after  30  or  more  years  of  service. 

And  so  it  is  not  strange  that  the  men  of  any 
age  who  are  most  likely  to  get  hurt  are  those 
whose  temperaments  are  most  like  either  the 
qualities  of  youth  —  responsiveness,  excita- 
bility, and  hastiness  —  or  most  like  old  age  — 
sluggishness,  indifference,  and  laggard  reac- 
tions. "The  best  safety  device  is  a  safe  man," 
it  has  been  said,  and  the  safe  man  appears  to 
be  one  who  is  neither  so  quick  on  the  trigger 
that  he  reacts  to  the  slightest  stimulus,  nor  so 
dull  as  to  fail  to  respond  promptly. 

There  is  a  very  wide  temperamental  varia- 
tion in  excitability  due  to  the  physiological  dif- 
ferences betvveen  individuals.  Dr.  Walter  B. 
Cannon,  in  his  epochal  book,  "  Bodily  Changes 
in  Pain,  Hunger,  Fear  and  Rage,"  has  demon- 
strated that  these  emotions  stimulate  the  dis- 
charge  into  the   blood  of  an  internal  gland 

10 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

secretion,  a  chemical  substance  called  "adre- 
nin."  He  has  proved  that  this  chemical  stimu- 
lates increased  circulation,  causes  the  liver  to 
throw  into  the  tissues  an  excess  of  sugar  —  the 
most  energizing  food  —  and  excites  all  of  the 
nerves  which  control  voluntary  activity.  At  the 
same  time,  it  hinders  digestion,  and  inhibits 
all  of  the  other  involuntary  activities  in  order 
that  the  entire  energy  of  the  body  can  be 
utilized,  under  central  direction,  to  meet  the 
situation  o£  danger  or  need  which  has  given 
rise  to  these  emotions.  Adrenin  seems  to  have 
a  specific  effect,  too,  in  overcoming  fatigue 
during  the  period  of  excitement. 

Some  individuals  have  an  excess  of  function 
in  the  adrenal  glands,  and  if  they  permit  emo- 
tions to  rouse  them,  or  often  find  themselves 
in  situations  where  emotions  are  kindled,  they 
are  in  a  constant  state  of  excitement,  of  highly 
mobilized  energy,  ignoring  fatigue,  moving 
spasmodically,  and,  most  likely,  with  undue 
haste  and  precipitation. 

Excitement  may  be  only  temporary;  excit- 
ability is  temperamental.  It  is  not  always 
linked  up  with  emotionality,  for  we  often  see 

II 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

persons  of  excellent  emotional  control  and 
calmness  who  respond  with  great  and  instant 
bodily  energy  to  such  stimulations  as  they  do 
permit  to  affect  them.  It  is  apparently  always 
linked  up,  however,  with  quick  and  sensitive 
nervous  responses.  So,  where  the  emotions  are 
well  controlled,  and  the  aroused  energies  are 
guided  by  high  intelligence  and  caution,  there 
is  no  temperament  which  can  be  more  safely 
trusted  in  dangerous  places  than  the  man  of 
quick  reactions.  But  where  the  intelligence  is 
muddy  and  confused,  and  the  emotions  are 
permitted  to  exhaust  the  energies,  as  is  usually 
the  case  with  the  highly  responsive  tempera- 
ment, we  get  a  condition  of  dangerous  excit- 
ability. There  will  be,  also,  superseding  periods 
of  depression,  due  to  the  overstrain  and  the 
necessary  relaxation  for  repair  of  forces.  Such 
a  person  is  always  on  the  threshold  of  agitation 
or  despair,  using  up  instantly  and  in  futile 
efforts  his  bodily  energy  as  soon  as  it  is  gener- 
ated. He  becomes  nervous,  irritable,  and  weary. 
He  seems  always  to  be  behind  time,  and  always 
under  pressure.  Always  late,  he  is  always 
hurried,  so  that  by  habit  he  becomes  precipi- 

12 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

tate  and  thoughtless.  He  first  acts  and  then 
reflects.  Deliberate  forethought  becomes  im- 
possible. It  irks  him  to  contemplate  it.  With 
him,  to  imagine  is  to  desire,  and  to  desire  is  to 
act.  Fears  are  translated  into  impulses  and  im- 
pulses into  performances  —  often  into  acci- 
dents. 

Such  persons  are,  of  course,  especially  sensi- 
tive to  reproof,  and,  because  of  their  hasty  dis- 
positions, more  often  merit  it,  so  that  they  are 
constantly  harried  by  their  unfortunate  blun- 
ders. Their  usual  recourse  is  to  drift  into  occu- 
pations of  a  clerical,  routine  nature,  or  work 
that  permits  them  a  certain  amount  of  isola- 
tion. By  such  defensive  withdrawals  from  con- 
flict they  avoid  excitement  and  find  peace. 
But  where  they  have  to  remain  on  jobs  that 
keep  them  stirred  up,  they  are  a  decided  acci- 
dent risk. 

Corresponding  to  the  over-active  tempera- 
ment we  have  the  stupid  or  phlegmatic  one. 
This  type  is  nearly  as  dangerous  as  the  other, 
because  it  is  so  slow  to  respond  that  it  cannot 
"step  lively"  in  dangerous  situations.  Tem- 
peramental sluggishness  to  the  degree  which  is 

13 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

dangerous,  however,  is  very  seldom  seen  in 
persons  of  normal  intelligence.  Abnormal  slow- 
ness to  react  is  usually  a  part  of  the  deteriora- 
tion of  old  age,  or  else  a  phase  of  depression 
from  disease,  fatigue,  or  insanity.  It  will,  there- 
fore, be  considered  under  those  heads. 

And  there  is,  of  course,  a  third  type  of  man 
whose  tendency  to  accident  is  general  and  in- 
born —  the  deficient  of  intellect.  He  is  an  un- 
safe man  because  he  cannot  easily  learn  or  be 
taught  how  to  take  care  of  himself,  and  in 
critical  situations  he  is  wholly  lacking  in  judg- 
ment. We  shall  speak  further  of  him,  later  on. 
Now  it  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that  the  low- 
grade  mentality,  along  with  the  very  imma- 
ture, the  very  old,  and  the  temperamentally 
excitable  or  phlegmatic,  forms  a  class  of  people 
who  get  hurt  because  they  are  not  safe  men. 
If  they  are  not  entirely  eliminated  by  initial 
selection,  they  must  be  carefully  assigned  to 
suitable  tasks  and  especially  protected  against 
their  own  tendencies. 

In  most  other  cases,  the  mental  errors  which 
result  in  accident  grow  out  of  particular  situa- 
tions which  may  be  altered,  occasional  events 

14 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

that  may  be  avoided,  individual  traits  or  at- 
titudes that  may  be  corrected,  or  peculiarities 
in  the  employee  that  may  be  compensated  for. 
In  other  words,  the  man  whose  whole  bent 
is  unsafe  must  be  considered  separately  and 
treated  differently  from  the  man  whose  errors 
may  be  related  to  special  and  removable 
causes. 

Real  and  apparent  mental  causes  of  accidents. 
The  great  majority  of  injuries  result  from  falls, 
stumbling,  mishaps  with  hand  tools,  and  failure 
to  get  out  of  the  way  of  moving  trucks,  cranes, 
and  other  vehicles.  Unguarded  machines,  fall- 
ing objects,  insecure  staging  or  scaffolds,  and 
other  faulty  working  conditions  do  create  suf- 
ficient havoc,  but  care  in  respect  to  mechanical 
safeguards  is  not  sufficient  to  protect  workmen. 
In  an  investigation  of  100,708  accidents,  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation  found  that 
44.93  per  cent  occurred  in  hand  labor,  where  no 
safety  device  could  be  furnished. 

Most  accidents,  of  course,  are  of  a  minor 
nature,  such  as  those  due  to  splinters,  pin- 
pricks, nail  wounds,  scratches  from  loose  wires, 

IS 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

or  from  tools,  contusions,  as  from  hammer 
blows,  tripping  on  loose  boards,  slipping  on  wet 
floors.  In  almost  every  case,  no  mechanical 
safeguard  could  have  been  provided.  Another 
important  group  of  accidents  occurs  on  ma- 
chines where  guards  have  been  provided,  or 
where  safe  rules  of  operating  have  been  formu- 
lated, but  where  the  men  injured  have  removed 
the  safeguards  or  disregarded  the  operating 
rules.  An  oiler,  for  instance,  was  lubricating  a 
shaft  five  feet  above  the  floor.  He  had  rolled  up 
his  sleeve,  but  it  had  unrolled,  and  hung  loose. 
He  attempted  to  give  the  shaft  a  bit  of  atten- 
tion while  it  was  in  motion.  His  sleeve  caught 
and  he  was  hurled  around  the  shaft  three  times. 
His  injuries  caused  fourteen  months'  lost  time 
and  permanent  disability.  Another  employee 
deliberately  removed  the  protection  from  an 
emery  wheel  and  failed  to  wear  his  goggles 
while  grinding  a  small  tool.  The  wheel  was 
cracked,  and  at  the  moment  happened  to  fly 
into  pieces,  with  the  result  that  the  man  lost 
an  eye. 

Clearly,  such  accidents  are  due  to  the  "hu- 
man element."  Just  as  clearly,  they  involve  a 

i6 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

mental  cause  which  it  will  repay  us  to  study, 
if  we  can  only  discover  it.  It  is  possible  that  the 
list  of  mental  causes  of  accidents  which  I  pro- 
pose to  analyze  is  a  complete  and  accurate  ap- 
praisal, and  yet  there  might  be,  at  the  same 
time,  great  difficulty  in  connecting  up  any 
given  accident  with  the  right  mental  cause. 
What  the  safety  man  has  a  right  to  ask  is  not 
only  a  set  of  pigeon-holes  into  which  to  classify 
accidents  by  mental  causes,  but  also  some  kind 
of  system  for  sorting  out  his  accident  cases  to 
get  them  into  the  right  pigeon-holes. 

A  man  stumbles  and  falls.  Perhaps  it  was 
due  to  some  basic  mental  factor.  But  how  are 
you  going  to  discover  which  one  ?  Does  the  man 
himself  know.?  Isn't  every  accident  unique; 
is  n't  it  due  to  a  peculiar  set  of  circumstances, 
a  temporary  mental  condition  that  just  hap- 
pened, and  which,  if  it  had  come  at  any  other 
time  or  place  than  when  and  where  the  accident 
occurred,  would  have  caused  no  trouble.? 

The  answer  to  such  queries  is  not  to  be  found 
in  any  set  of  fundamental  accident  causes  alone, 
because  we  have  to  deal  also  with  a  set  of  ap- 
parent or  proximate  causes. 

17 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

If  we  should  take  for  analysis  any  given  set 
of  one  hundred  accidents,  of  which  we  knew  all 
of  the  attendant  circumstances,  and  set  down 
in  writing  the  immediate  situation  of  the  man 
hurt,  we  should  get  statements  something  like 
the  following: 

"He  was  running  to  shut  off  the  power  on  a 
picker  which  had  caught  fire  inside,  and  slipped 
on  the  floor  and  cut  his  forehead  on  the  end  of 
a  lap-rod." 

"Jones  was  cleaning  a  mule  spinning  frame 
which  was  inadvertently  started  up  by  another 
hand.  The  frame  had  been  stopped  on  the  way 
in  instead  of  on  the  way  out,  and  he  was  caught 
before  he  could  get  out." 

"The  oiler  was  in  a  hurry  to  get  home  for  the 
day,  and  failed  to  secure  the  ladder  properly." 

And  so  on.  In  most  cases  no  strictly  mental 
feature  would  show  up  on  first  examination. 
Haste  might  be  cited  as  a  cause  in  two  of  the 
above  cases,  and,  assuredly,  hurry  is  a  mental 
state.  But  is  not  the  cause  of  hurry  usually 
something  external  and  cannot  an  infinite 
number  of  things  cause  a  man  to  hurry  ? 

Or,  in  the  case  of  the  man  caught  in  the  mule 
i8 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

spinning  frame,  we  might  say  that  another  man 
could  have  got  out  in  time,  and  that  this  one 
is  mentally  slow.  But  isn't  there  something 
back  of  his  being  caught  in  the  frame  at  all, 
which  is  more  truly  the  cause  of  the  accident  ? 
And  so,  if  we  went  on  and  analyzed  the  en- 
tire one  hundred  accidents,  we  should  be 
likely  to  feel  considerable  doubt  of  our  pre- 
liminary mental  diagnosis.  It  would  be  possible, 
however,  to  simplify  the  confusion  somewhat 
by  sorting  them  roughly  into  these  various 
classes : 

1.  Cases  where  the  victim  was  hurried;  where 
he  was  n't  given  or  did  n't  take  time  to 
think,  or  where,  in  his  haste,  he  was  led  to 
omit  some  necessary  step,  or  slight  some 
safeguard. 

2.  Cases  where  the  victim  was  too  slow;  where 
he  did  n't  react  quickly  enough  to  get  out  of 
the  way  of  danger  when  warned. 

3.  Cases  where  the  victim  showed  lack  of  judg- 
ment —  through  confusion,  ignorance,  or 
neglect. 

While  these  are,  all  three,  mental  classifica- 
tions, we  cannot  rest  content  with  these  diag- 
noses, because  they  are  not  diseases,  but  symp- 

19 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

toms ;  they  present  us  with  nothing  we  can  cure. 
Hurry  may  be  only  spasmodic;  the  steadiest 
man  loses  his  head  sometimes.  Slowness  is  only 
relative.  Merely  failing  to  "  beat  the  machine 
to  it,"  so  to  speak,  counts  for  little  as  a  mental 
trouble,  because  on  a  slower  machine  the  acci- 
dent might  not  have  happened.  And  it  is  idle 
to  stigmatize  bad  judgment,  because  judgment 
cannot  be  cultivated  as  a  mental  faculty.  It 
is  always  appraised  in  relation  to  a  given  situa- 
tion, and  consistently  good  judgment  is  a  by- 
product of  experience.  Indeed,  it  includes  so 
many  mental  elements  that  it  is  almost  a  s)mo- 
nym  for  successful  adjustment  to  the  environ- 
ment. We  cannot  always  be  sure,  in  any  given 
case,  what  is  good  or  bad  judgment,  save  by 
the  evidence  of  success  or  failure. 

The  value  of  making,  nevertheless,  such  a 
provisional  classification  lies  in  the  fact  that, 
roughly  speaking,  it  does  make  the  first  main 
subdivision.  Generally,  being  too  slow  or  too 
fast  does  not  involve  judgment,  but  situation. 
In  such  cases,  not  so  much  a  wrong  decision  as 
lack  of  any  decision  brings  on  the  trouble.  And 
a  too  rapid  action  usually  points  to  a  veiy  dif- 

20 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

ferent  set  of  possible  mental  causes  from  those 
indicated  by  a  laggard  motion. 

Viewing  the  causation  of  accidents  the  other 
way  round,  we  shall  see  that  none  of  the  funda- 
mental mental  causes  operates,  in  itself,  to 
cause  an  accident.  Excitement,  for  instance, 
growing  out  of  mental  disease,  cannot  hurt  a 
man,  but  a  hurried  movement  growing  out  of 
excitement  can  cause  an  accident.  Fatigue,  or 
disease,  or  depression  from  worry,  cannot  in 
themselves  cause  accidents,  save  as  they  cause 
a  man  to  move  too  slowly  to  get  out  of  the  way 
of  trouble,  or  cause  his  judgment  to  be  poor. 

It  would  be  tedious  here  to  trace  back  all  of 
the  precedent  causes  of  hurry,  lag,  or  poor 
judgment,  which  show  up  as  apparent  causes 
of  almost*  any  avoidable  accident.  We  shall 
rather  go  directly  on  to  the  more  fundamental 
causes,  and,  as  we  deal  with  them,  indicate  how 
they  affect  the  immediate  behavior  of  the  vic- 
tim of  accident.  But  at  no  time  ought  we  to 
forget  that  there  are  both  immediate  or  proxi- 
mate causes  of  accidents  —  such  as  hurry,  lag, 
and  poor  judgment  —  which  can  only  be  dealt 
with  by  tracing  back  to  more  fundamental 

21 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

errors ;  and  that  basic  mental  troubles  are  likely 
to  obscure  themselves  behind  these  immediate 
causes. 

The  main  outlines  of  this  analysis.  The  dis- 
tinctions between  various  mental  causes  of  acci- 
dents made  in  this  book  are  perhaps  faulty  in 
some  respects  —  very  likely  arbitrary.  As  this 
essay  appears  to  be  the  first  attempt  to  embrace 
in  a  single  classification  all  the  mental  factors 
which  may  affect  the  man  who  gets  hurt,  it  is 
necessarily  provisional  and  limited  by  the  per-  ^ 
sonal  capacity  of  a  single  investigator.  Yet 
there  appears  to  be  some  logical  consistency 
and  a  certain  appearance  of  completeness  in  the 
arrangement. 

Fifteen  major  causes  of  accident  are  dealt 
with,  and  these  are  susceptible  of  grouping  un- 
der five  heads:  ignorance,  predispositions, 
inattention,  preoccupation,  and  depression. 
These  words  do  not  immediately  tell  the  story, 
but  they  are  useful  words  to  sum  up  what  I 
shall  say  more  fully.  They  are,  furthermore, 
classifications  which  may  stretch  over  the  whole 
field  of  mental  error. 

22 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

Ignorance,  by  derivation,  means  simply  not 
knowing.  As  a  source  of  accidents,  ignorance 
means  lack  of  necessary  information  or  of  ca- 
pacity to  understand  information  about  danger- 
ous processes.  A  workman  may  not  know 
because  of  not  having  been  told,  or  of  not 
understanding  the  English  language,  or  of  not 
having  the  mental  faculty  for  comprehending 
what  he  is  told.  When  a  workman's  wits  are 
puzzled,  safety  is  accidental.  We  shall  look  into 
these  three  sources  of  ignorance  in  Chapter  II, 

Predisposition  is  a  more  active  condition  di- 
rectly opposed  to  safe  practice.  It  might  be  set 
down  as  a  wrong  bent,  a  ^tate  of  mind,  which, 
however  innocent  of  blame,  leads  one  to  getting 
into  the  way  of  trouble.  This  mental  attitude  is 
more  difficult  to  deal  with  than  ignorance,  be- 
cause it's  knowing  what  "ain't  so."  Or  it  may 
be  just  a  lifetime  accumulation  of  ideas  and 
habits  which  shut  the  door  on  new  and  valuable 
information.  A  man  who  cannot  trust  his  own 
senses,  or  whose  ideas  and  habits  stand  in  the 
way  of  his  intelligence,  is  an  unintentional  acci- 
dent risk.  We  shall  consider  in  Chapter  III 
those  sense  defects  which  misguide  the  mind  by 

23 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

furnishing  it,  so  to  speak,  with  insufficient  or 
false  information.  In  the  chapter  on  "The 
Stubborn  Mind,"  three  other  types  of  pre- 
disposition to  accident  —  faulty  attitudes,  tem- 
peramental excitability,  and  subconscious  er- 
rors —  will  be  dealt  with.  The  fourth  form  of 
predisposition  —  faulty  habits  —  has  a  chapter 
to  itself.  We  may  note  even  at  this  point,  how- 
ever, that  when  we  put  men  to  work  who  are 
ignorant  of  their  dangers,  or  who  are  already 
in  a  mental  condition  in  which  they  tend  willy- 
nilly  toward  an  unsafe  mode  of  conduct,  we 
can  hardly  complain  that  the  Workmen's  Com- 
pensation Acts  hold  us  responsible  for  any 
injuries  they  sustain. 

Inattention,  which  is  dealt  with  next,  is 
simply  the  state  of  being  otherwise  engaged  — 
"nobody  home"  —  a  condition  in  which  a  nor- 
mal, healthy  mind  and  a  normal,  healthy  body 
with  no  predisposing  faculty  for  getting  hurt 
are  engaged  in  other  business  when  the  test 
comes.  In  the  chapter  on  "The  Diverted 
Mind,"  we  shall  see  that  safety  is  a  by-product 
of  interest  in  the  job,  and  that  while  the  work- 
man may  be  held  at  fault  for  letting  his  mind 

24 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

wander,  yet  management  has  it  in  its  own 
power  so  to  interest  and  so  to  preserve  the 
equanimity  of  workers  that  their  minds  will 
not  wander. 

Preoccupation  means  the  surrender  of  the 
mind  to  claims  of  feeling  or  mental  habits 
which  are  stronger  in  their  influence  than  any- 
thing in  the  present  situation.  It  is  an  emo- 
tional hang-over  from  some  situation  or  physi- 
cal condition  which  continues  to  excite  the 
mind,  even  after  the  crisis  has  passed.  It  in- 
terests us  with  relation  to  accidents  because 
so  often  the  worker  imports  into  the  plant  with 
him  part  of  the  drama  of  his  life  outside,  re- 
enacting  his  own  difficulties  at  a  time  when  he 
ought  to  be  putting  his  mind  on  his  work.  It 
may  be  only  an  emotional  strain  or  it  may  be 
out-and-out  insanity,  but  whatever  the  degree 
of  preoccupation,  a  mind  which  is  not  "  to  let," 
so  to  speak,  for  new  mental  tenants,  not  ready 
to  meet  the  situations  that  come  up  currently, 
is  a  mind  predisposed  to  accidents.  We  shall 
speak  of  this  further  in  the  chapter  on  "The 
Troubled  Mind." 

Depression  is  a  medical  term  for  what  is 

25 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

sometimes  also  called  psycho-motor  retarda- 
tion, and  for  which  the  plain  English  is  slug- 
gishness or  torpor.  This  is  a  physical  or  mental 
state  in  which  one's  functions  are  inactive,  his 
reactions  laggard,  his  understanding  blurred, 
and  his  responses  tardy.  Temporarily  he  is 
depressed  to  a  lower  state  than  normal.  He  is 
predisposed  to  accident,  for  the  time  being.  In 
the  chapter  on  "  The  Physical  Mind,"  we  shall 
examine  some  of  the  ways  in  which  disease, 
drugs,  and  faulty  plant  conditions  may  produce 
depression,  and,  in  the  chapter  on  "The  Tired 
Mind,"  offer  some  opinions  on  so-called  "fa- 
tigue." 

It  may  occur  to  the  critical  reader  to  ask  why 
there  is  not  a  classification  for  "excitement," 
set  off  against  "depression,"  as  the  logical  op- 
posite of  sluggishness.  Our  reply  must  be  that, 
whereas  depression  can  be  a  settled,  persistent 
thing,  and,  in  its  various  subdivisions,  a  funda- 
mental mental  condition,  excitement  is  tempo- 
rary and  symptomatic.  As  we  have  already 
seen,  when  it  is  chronic,  it  is  temperamental,  as 
excitability,  and  we  shall  have  to  consider  it, 
then,   under  the   head  of  "  predispositions,'4 

26 


THE  UNGUARDED  MIND 

along  with  faulty  attitudes,  as  a  "mental  set." 
When  excitement  is  merely  acute  and  occa- 
sional, it  may  be  due  to  distractions  in  the  en- 
vironment, to  disease,  to  worry,  or  to  mental 
derangement,  and  should  be  regarded  as  one  of 
the  aspects  of  these  troubles. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

Hunkies.  Did  you  ever  see  in  some  factory- 
yard  a  complicated  electrical  apparatus  with  a 
fence  around  it,  and  a  sign  marked  "Danger  — 
2200  volts"?  You  couldn't  see  the  volts,  or 
guess  just  where  they  were  kept.  You  merely 
felt  that  if  they  were  dangerous,  you  were  glad 
that  they  were  fenced  in,  and  you  considered 
it  prudent  to  stay  outside  of  the  fence. 

But  what  if  you  were  required  to  go  inside 
of  the  fence  and  work  around  the  mysterious 
colony  of  volts  ?  Would  a  mere  danger  sign  tell 
you  how  to  keep  them  from  biting  you.?  You 
would  probably  demand  a  few  further  instruc- 
tions before  even  touching  the  fence.  You 
would  want  to  ask  questions,  and  get  explicit 
verbal  answers. 

But  suppose  that  you  could  n't  speak  any- 
thing but  Polish,  and  your  boss  was  limited  to 
some  form  of  the  English  language  t  Would  a 
danger  sign  in  your  language  really  help  you? 

28 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

Unless  it  is  interpreted,  a  warning  on  the  out- 
side of  the  fence  is  of  no  use  to  the  man  who  has 
to  work  inside  of  it. 

Safety  instruction  has  to  be  specific  and  pet' 
sonal.  It  has  to  be  talked.  It  cannot  overcome, 
the  language  barrier.  Ignorance  of  the  English 
language,  therefore,  is  a  big  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  accident  prevention.  Printed  statements, 
even  in  the  native  tongue  of  foreign  workers, 
cannot  deal  with  the  other  causes  of  error. 
Only  direct  conversation  and  mutual  confi- 
dence between  boss  and  workers  can  reveal  the 
real  sources  of  difficulties.  The  Ludlow  Manu- 
facturing Company  has  estimated  that  8  per 
cent  of  its  infections  are  due  to  inability  of 
foreigners  to  read  bulletins  and  warnings.  They 
have  n't  been  able  to  learn  of  the  danger  of 
neglected  abrasions,  and  so  allow  small  injuries 
to  go  without  antiseptic  treatment  until  infec- 
tion develops. 

In  a  period  of  eight  years  the  accident  records 
of  a  large  steel  company  reported  by  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  showed  a 
definite  connection  between  lack  of  knowledge 
of  English  and  accident  hazard.  Non-English- 

29 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

speaking  workers  showed  a  frequency  rate  2.3 
times  that  of  American-born  (212.6  as  against 

90.7  cases  per  1000)  and  a  severity  rate  14 
times  as  high  as  that  of  the  American-born 
(29.5  as  against  21.8  days  lost  per  worker).^ 

A  pamphlet  issued  by  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  asserts  that,  among  anthracite  miners 
in  Pennsylvania  for  a  period  studied,  43  per 
cent   of  English-speaking  workers   had   only 

28.8  per  cent  of  the  fatalities,  while  56  per  cent 
non-English-speaking  workers  carried  71.2  per 
cent  of  the  fatalities,  or  nearly  double  the  rate. 
Even  worse  was  the  record  of  the  non-English- 
speaking  in  the  bituminous  mines  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  West  Virginia.  Had  the  rate  of  acci- 
dents of  the  English-speaking  in  the  three  dis- 
tricts held  good  also  for  the  foreign-language 
workers,  there  would  have  been  a  saving  of 
716  deaths  and  900  ver}''  serious  injuries.^ 

Records  kept  in  a  large  steel  mill  for  a  period 
of  eight  years  showed  that  accidents  among 
non-English-speaking  workers  were  more  fre- 

•  U.S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Industrial  Occidents  and 
Hygiene,  Series  l8,  Whiole  No.  234,  June,  1918. 

*  Americanization,  May  I,  1919.  Dept.  of  the  Interior, 
Bureau  of  Education. 

30 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

quent  and  more  severe  than  among  those  speak- 
ing EngHsh.  Whereas  the  number  of  lost-time 
accidents  per  looo  300-day  workers  among  the 
English-speaking  dropped  steadily  from  140  in 
1906  down  to  79  in  1913,  the  rate  among  those 
stopped  by  the  language  barrier  remained  al- 
most constant  at  more  than  200  per  1000.^ 

Another  plant,  a  machine-building  concern, 
showed  a  three-year  average  of  60.6  accidents 
per  1000  American-born  workers,  as  against 
101.7  among  the  foreign-born  group.^ 

That  the  higher  accident  rate  among  foreign- 
language  workers  can  be  cut  down  by  teaching 
them  to  speak  English  seems  to  be  borne  out  by 
the  experience  of  the  Ford  Motor  Company, 
which  reduced  accidents  54  per  cent  during  the 
first  five  years  of  the  operation  of  their  school. 

The  teaching  of  English  to  foreigners  has  an 
additional  value  owing  to  the  fact  that  so  many 
of  them  are  illiterate  in  any  language.  In  the 
ten-year  period  from  1899  to  1909,  when  illit- 
erate foreigners  were  still  being  admitted  by 
the  immigration  laws,  of  all  the  foreigners  who 

*  U.S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  216,  August, 
^917. 
« Ihid. 

31 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

came  to  this  country,  54.2  per  cent  of  the  south 
Italians  could  not  read  or  write  their  own  lan- 
guage; of  the  Ruthenians,  51  per  cent  were 
illiterate;  of  the  Lithuanians,  48.8  per  cent;  of 
the  Croatians  and  Slovenes,  36.4  per  cent;  of 
the  Poles,  35.4  per  cent;  of  the  Greeks,  27  per 
cent,  and  of  the  Jews  25  per  cent,  were  totally 
illiterate  in  any  language.  And  at  the  present 
day,  when  the  importation  of  illiteracy  has  been 
abated,  the  figures  for  our  foreign-born  workers 
show  an  appalling  amount  of  total  illiteracy. 
With  such  ignorance,  it  is  futile  even  to  trans- 
late safety  bulletins  even  into  foreign  languages. 
The  Americanization  classes  are,  for  many 
foreigners,  their  first  schooling  in  any  tongue. 

Inexperience.  The  English  language  itself  is,  of 
course,  no  guarantee  unless  it  is  used.  We  some- 
times make  the  double  error  of  assuming  that  a 
foreigner  is  stupid  because  he  can't  be  told,  and 
that  an  American  is  "smart"  and  does  n't  need 
to  be  told.  And  so,  too  often,  he  is  n't  told. 

A  certain  proportion  of  factories — really  not 
many  —  give  new  workmen  some  printed  in- 
structions on  safety.  Wise  little  aphorisms  may 

32 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

be  handed  to  applicants  for  jobs  to  read  while 
they  are  waiting,  or  they  may  be  furnished  as 
part  of  the  material  in  a  booklet  entitled  "Shop 
Rules."  The  new  employee  reads  this  once  to 
see  when  or  where  he  can't  smoke,  and  then 
throws  it  away.  Perhaps  the  foreman  may 
speak  a  word  on  safety  as  he  takes  the  worker 
to  his  machine ;  but  generally  he  does  n't  even 
take  the  man  to  the  machine. 

"Go  to  work  on  D-131  over  in  the  comer 
there,"  is  likely  to  be  the  only  instruction  to 
the  beginner. 

And,  indeed,  safety  instruction  given  the  first 
day  is  wasted  unless  it  is  repeated  a  good  many 
times.  A  man  may  properly  plead  ignorance  of 
safety  until  he  has  been  told  often  enough  to 
know.  Just  telling  him  once  does  n't  make  him 
know.  Knowing  is  an  act  or  condition  of  his 
mind,  not  of  the  teller's.  The  average  new 
worker's  mind  is  surely  no  better  than  that  of 
the  college  student,  and  some  one  has  described 
the  latter's  brain  as  being  "curiously  con- 
structed to  resist  the  intrusion  of  knowledge." 
Until  we  have  broken  down  the  new  worker's 
resistance  to  helpful  information,  we  must  con- 

33 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

sider  him  an  accident  risk,  on  the  score  of  ig- 
norance or  inexperience,  if  on  no  other. 

Inexperience  is,  indeed,  a  prolific  source  of 
accident.  In  a  textile  mill  of  which  I  have  sta- 
tistics, two  years  ago  456  per  cent  of  persons 
who  had  served  less  than  one  month  with  the 
company  were  injured.  And,  in  another  mill, 
181  per  cent  of  those  employed,  on  the  average 
less  than  three  months,  were  injured.  This,  of 
course,  includes  minor  ailments  causing  no  lost 
time,  but  all  of  my  figures  show  that  the  inex- 
perienced man  is  much  more  disposed  to  acci- 
dents than  the  old-timer. 

In  two  mills  which  furnish  me  with  figures 
the  table  of  accident  frequencies  for  each  length 
of  service  group  in  1920  shows  a  gradual  reduc- 
tion of  accidents  with  experience  till  after 
twenty  to  thirty  years,  when  the  age  factor 
begins  to  tell  in  favor  of  a  higher  accident  rate. 

Startling  figures  on  the  rate  of  accidents  per 
day  among  new  workers  were  furnished  in  a 
report  on  women  in  the  metal  trades.^  Among 
press  hands  the  average  number  injured  the 

*  Employment  of  Women  in  the  Metal  Trades.  S.  Doc 
No.  64.5,  61  St.  Cong.,  2nd  Sess. 

34 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 


first  day  was  329.  This  rate  dropped  steadily 
with  experience,  till  after  seven  months  the 
rate  dropped  to  .47  (less  than  i)  per  day. 

Rate  of  Accidents  in  Proportion  to  the  Average 

Number  of  Employees  in  Each  Length  of 

Service  Group 

Mill  No.  I 


Length  of  Service 

No.  OF 

No.  OF 

Accident 

Employees 

Accidents 

Rate 

Less  than  i  month 

41 

74 

181% 

I  to  less  than  3  mos. 

96 

121 

127 

«     "      «     8     " 

249 

217 

87 

8  "     "      "    12     " 

183 

114 

6a 

Total  less  than  i  yr. 

569 

526 

92 

I  to  under    s  years 

750 

430 

57 

5  "      ".      ^°    " 

267 

125 

47 

10  "      "      20    " 

223 

119 

53 

20  "      "      30    " 

164 

59 

36 

30  "      "      40    " 

75 

33 

44 

40  "      "      so    " 

33 

22 

67 

SO  "      "      60    " 

4 

0 

0 

Mill  No.  2 


Less  than  i  month 

43 

61 

142 

I  to  less  than  3  mos. 

I  OS 

159 

151 

.  «     ((      «     0     <t 

296 

269 

91 

8  "     "      "    12     " 

325 

158 

49 

Total  less  than  i  yr. 

769 

647 

84 

I  to  under    5  years 

704 

464 

66 

S  "      "      10    " 

I8S 

133 

72 

10  "      "      20    " 

92 

28 

30 

20  "      "      30    " 

58 

21 

36 

30  "      "      40    " 

29 

9 

31 

40  "      "      so    " 

4 

6 

150 

SO  "      "      60    " 

3 

0 

0 

35 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

An  unpublished  study  which  was  made  of  the 
statistics  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company, 
Youngstown  Sheet  and  Tube  Company,  Inter- 
national Harvester  Company,  Fairbanks, 
Morse,  and  several  other  companies,  showed 
that  new  employees  of  less  than  one  month's 
service  were  six  times  as  liable  to  injury  as  those 
at  work  over  one  month.  Economy  of  effort  in 
accident  prevention  would  counsel  a  concentra- 
tion of  attention  upon  newcomers.  Ignorance 
due  to  inexperience  is  the  most  prolific  mental 
cause  of  accidents. 

It  seems  evident  that  a  good  part  of  the  acci- 
dent hazard  with  beginners  is  due  to  nervous- 
ness in  strange  circumstances  and  distractions 
from  unfamiliar  surroundings.  This  agitation 
and  confusion  could  somewhat  be  reduced  by 
a  more  considerate  and  friendly  introduction 
than  the  beginner  usually  gets,  by  painstaking 
explanations  and  expressions  of  reassurance 
and  praise  by  the  foreman  to  give  the  newcomer 
confidence,  and  by  the  assignment  of  an  in- 
structor to  hold  the  attention  of  the  worker  to 
the  job. 


36 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

Mental  limitation.  Some  men  "catch  on" 
quickly,  of  course  —  so  quickly  as  to  seem 
scarcely  ever  to  have  been  beginners.  They 
don't  seem  to  need  warnings;  or,  if  warned 
once,  to  need  no  further  admonition.  But  how 
rare  they  are !  And,  in  the  past,  we  have  rather 
waited  for  accident  experience  in  the  course  of 
time  to  reveal  just  which  men  were  quick  to 
learn  and  which  ones  were  stupid.  Every  safety 
man  has  thrown  up  his  hands  at  times  at  the 
discovery  of  workers  who  seemed  unable  to 
profit  by  experience.  Some  men  will  crush  their 
fingers  time  after  time  by  the  same  flagrant  dis- 
regard of  rules  and  of  common  sense. 

An  accident  in  a  sawmill  in  Vermont,  which 
came  to  my  attention,  was  so  perverse  as  al- 
most to  make  one  glad  that  it  happened.  A 
worker  one  morning  pushed  his  finger  against 
a  saw,  which  neatly  sliced  it  off.  He  had  the 
mutilated  hand  dressed,  and  with  cheerful  for- 
titude returned  to  work  in  the  afternoon,  feel- 
ing rather  the  sensation  of  the  hour.  Anxious 
to  get  the  full  publicity  out  of  the  accident,  he 
undertook  to  demonstrate  to  his  fellow  work- 
ers how  it  happened.  His  performance  was  too 

37 

52147 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

realistic  and  he  cut  off  another  finger.  He  at 
least  had  an  audience  the  second  time! 

Perhaps  a  normally  intelligent  person  could 
do  such  a  thing,  but  it  is  more  likely  to  happen 
to  a  certain  type  of  mind.  Some  folks  have  the 
accident  habit.  In  a  Lowell  textile  mill  in  1921, 
out  of  131  people  hurt,  29  were  injured  two  or 
three  times,  sustaining  69  accidents,  and  57  of 
these  were  reported  as  due  to  "carelessness." 
They  had  the  accident  habit ;  they  learned  little 
from  experience. 

We  may  at  times  have  reacted  badly  and  un- 
wisely to  such  cases.  We  may  simply  have  lost 
patience  and  blamed  the  worker,  when  in  real- 
ity we  should  have  realized  that  he  lacked  ca- 
pacity and  understanding.  Perhaps  the  blame 
was  ours,  for  not  having  determined  his  mental 
powers  and  assigned  him  accordingly. 

Those  who  have  to  do  with  juvenile  reforma- 
tories, prisons,  and  similar  institutions  find  that 
the  vast  majority  of  offenses  are  committed  by 
"recidivists"  (or  habitual  law-breakers).  And 
of  these  recidivists  a  very  large  proportion  are 
mentally  deficient.  Indeed,  it  is  taken  as  prima 
facie  evidence  of  lack  of  intelligence  when  a 

38 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

criminars  record  shows  a  history  of  previous 
commitments.  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  the 
belief  that,  except  in  cases  of  workers  at  extra- 
hazardous occupations,  a  history  of  recurrent 
accidents  should  throw  doubt  upon  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  victim.  I  believe  that  in  such  cases 
a  mental  examination  should  be  held.  At  all 
events,  accident  records  should  be  so  kept  that 
repeaters  show  up  in  special  categories. 

Industrial  managers  are  only  beginning  to 
discover  the  full  importance  of  the  different  lev- 
els of  intelligence  of  workers.  Professor  H.  H. 
Goddard  has  drawn  some  analogies  between 
the  men  who  were  tested  for  the  draft  in  the 
army  and  the  general  population.  Seventy  per 
cent  of  the  1,700,000  men  who  were  given 
psychological  tests  were  assigned  a  mental  age 
of  fourteen  years  or  less,  and  45  per  cent  of  them 
were  rated  as  morons;  that  is,  not  capable  of 
complete  and  independent  self-guidance.  Pro- 
fessor Goddard  feels  that  this  is  a  good  sample 
of  how  our  general  population  measures  up. 
Probably  it  is.  The  fact  that  men  "get  by"  on 
their  job,  at  least,  is  not  evidence  of  adult  in- 
telligence. In  a  certain  silk  mill  a  psychologist 

39 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

who  tested  three  hundred  workers  found  no 
correlation  between  intelligence  and  ability  to 
perform  the  work  well.^  A  great  many  semi- 
skilled or  unskilled  workers  who  are  doing  a 
passable  job  would  rate  very  low  in  an  intelli- 
gence test.  It  is,  of  course,  fortunate  that  a 
great  many  jobs,  also,  make  no  particular  call 
for  mental  alertness,  because  this  fact  gives 
even  dull  minds  a  chance  to  find  assignment  in 
profitable  jobs.  Textile  mills  formerly  were 
operated  largely  by  children,  so  it  is  easy  to 
believe  that  the  adults  who  took  their  places 
may  sometimes  possess  only  childish  intelli- 
gence, and  still  do  acceptable  work. 

Accident  hazards,  however,  are  not  routine. 
The  emergency  calls  for  the  keen  mind,  and 
comprehension  of  instruction  as  to  how  to  pre- 
pare for  emergencies  demands  a  higher  level  of 
intelligence  than  the  normal  conduct  of  the  job. 
Ability  to  do  a  job,  therefore,  is  not  in  itself  a 
guarantee  of  intelligence  sufficient  to  rate  the 
possessor  as  a  low  accident  risk. 

If  you  will  examine  the  tests  by  which  the 

»  Arthur  S.  Otis,  The  Selection  of  Mill  Workers  by  Mental 
Tests.  Camp  Grant,  111. 

40 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

different  mental  ages  are  determined,  you  will 
observe  that  ideas  that  will  "go  across"  to  a 
person  of  one  mental  age  will  not  be  understood 
by  those  of  a  lower  age.  To  illustrate  this  I 
have  made  a  tabular  abstract  of  the  tests  de- 
scribed in  Terman's  "Measurement  of  Intelli- 
gence." 

Table  i.  Abstracts  of  a  Sample  Group  of  Tests,  such 
AS  are  used  to  establish  Mental  Ages 

Age  Tests 

III.  I.  Pointing  to  parts  of  the  body 

2.  Naming  familiar  objects  —  shown 

3.  Recognizing  familiar  objects  in  pictures 

4.  Naming  own  sex 

5.  Giving  full  name 

6.  Repeating  6  or  7  syllables  (or)  3  digits 

IV.  I.  Comparison  of  length  of  lines 

2.  Discrimination  of  geometric  forms 

3.  Counting  four  pennies 

4.  Copying  a  square  (irrespective  of  size  —  4  angles 
nearly  right) 

5.  Comprehension  of  "first  degree"  —      (  sleepy 
what  to  do  when  <  cold 
(Self-taught  habits)  (^  hungry 

6.  Repeating  4  digits  (or)  12  to  13  syllables. 

V.  I.  Comparison  of  weights 

2.  Naming  colors 

3.  Comparing  pretty  and  ugly,  as  shown  in  pictures 

4.  Defining  meaning  of  six  given  common  nouns 

5.  Game  of  patience  (fitting  two  triangles  together) 

6.  Doing  three   simple  things  in  order   named   (or) 
telling  age 

41 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

VI.  I.  Distinguishing  "right"  from  "left" 

2.  Finding  omissions  in  pictures  shown 

3.  Counting  13  pennies 

4.  Comprehension,  of  "second  degree"  —  what  to  do 
in  common  emergencies 

!when  it  is  raining 
when  house  is  burning 
when  you  miss  street  car 

5.  Naming  4  coins  shown 

6.  Repeating  16 -l8  syllables  (or)  telling  forenoon 
or  afternoon 

VII.  I.  Giving  number  of  fingers  (or)  naming  days  of  week 

2.  Description  of  pictures  (things  happening  —  not 
mere  enumeration) 

3.  Repeating  5  digits  (or)  repeating  3  digits  reversed 

4.  Tying  a  bow-knot 

5.  Pointing  out  differences,  by  memory  (as  between 
fly  and  butterfly;  stone  and  egg;  wood  and  glass) 

6.  Copying  a  diamond 

VIII.  I.  Ball  and  field  test  (tracing  search  for  ball  in  circular 
field) 

2.  Counting  backwards,  20  to  I  (or)  naming  6  coins 
shown 

3.  Comprehension  of  "third  degree"  (action,  involv- 
ing imparted  judgment) 

4.  Pointing  out  similarities  between  two  things,  as 
between  wood  and  coal;  apple  and  peach;  iron  and 
silver;  ship  and  auto 

5.  Giving  definitions  by  description  rather  than  by 
statement  of  for  what  use  (or)  writing  from  dicta- 
tion 

6.  Vocabulary  —  20  definitions,  or  indication  of 
knowing  3600  words 

IX.  I.  Giving  the  date  (day  of  week,  of  month,  year) 
(or)  name  months 

42 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

2.  Arranging  5  weights  in  relative  order 

3.  Making  change  (simple  subtraction)  or  count  value 

of  stamps 

4.  Repeating  4  digits  reversed 

5.  Using  three  words  in  a  sentence  (boy,  ball,  river, 
work,  money,  men,  desert,  rivers,  lakes) 

6.  Finding  rhymes  (3,  for  3  simple  words) 

X.  I.  Vocabulary  —  30    definitions    (or    indication    of 
knowing  5400  words) 

2.  Detecting  absurdities  in  five  given  sentences  (or) 
repeating  6  digits 

3.  Drawing  designs  from  memory  (or)  construction 
puzzle 

4.  Repeating  gist  of  passage  imparting  information  of 
eight  facts 

5.  Comprehension,  of  "fourth  degree";  (Independent 
judgment) 

6.  Naming  sixty  words  (or)   repeating  20  -  22  syl- 
lables 

XII.  I.  Vocabulary  —  40  definitions  —  7200  words 

2.  Defining  abstract  words  (pity,  revenge,  envy,  jus- 
tice, etc.) 

3.  Ball  and  field  test  (superior  plan) 

4.  Dissected  sentences  (rearranging  sentences) 

5.  Interpretation  of  fables  —  (giving  moral) 

6.  Repeating  5  digits  reversed 

7.  Interpretation  of  pictures  (imparting  ideas) 

n    o-    -I     •  •  1  •  t  i  snake 

8.  Similarities  3  things  —  5  groups  of  } 

nouns  such  as  j 

[^  sparrow 

XIV.   I.  Vocabulary  —  50  definitions  —  9000  words 

2.  Introduction  test;  finding  a  rule  after  5  demonstra- 
tions 

3.  Difference  between  "president"  and  "king" 

4.  Problem  questions   (simple  situations   to  be  ex- 
plained) 

43 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

5.  Arithmetical  reasoning  (simple  mental  arithmetic) 

6.  Reversing  hands  of  clock  (or)  repeating  7  digits 

Average  Adult: 

1.  Vocabulary  —  65  definitions  —  11,700  words 

2.  Interpretation  of  fables ' 

T^.rr  ,  ( laziness  and  idleness 

■?.  Differences  between        \        ,     .  ,  ,     . 

•'      ,  ■{  evolution  and  revolution 

abstract  terms  l  ^         j      • 

(  poverty  and  misery 

4.  Problem  of  enclosed  boxes 

5.  Repeating  6  digits  backward  (or)  28  syllables 

6.  Using  a  code  (or)  comprehension  of  physical  rela- 
tions 


Superior  Adult: 

1.  Vocabulary  —  75  definitions —  13,500  words 

2.  Binet's  paper  cutting  test 

3.  Repeating  8  digits 

4.  Repeating  thought  of  passage 

5.  Repeating  7  digits  reversed 

6.  Ingenuity  test 

Even  if  not  many  of  the  tests  are  clear  from 
this  abstract,  enough  of  them  are  obvious  to 
illustrate  that  the  45  per  cent  of  workers  who 
are  presupposed  to  be  of  mental  age  of  twelve 
years  or  less  would  not  be  able  to  make  some  of 
the  responses,  or  understand  some  of  the  ideas 
which  are  called  for  in  the  last  three  classifica- 
tions. Any  whose  mental  age  was  ten  years  or 
less  would  certainly  be  accident  hazards,  in 
quite  the  same  sense  that  workers  with  hernia, 

44 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

cardiac  disease,  or  any  other  physical  defects 
are  hazards. 

Getting  "home"  to  slow  wits.  Apart  from 
the  question  of  positive  danger  from  low  intelli- 
gence, we  need  to  consider  the  question  of  ap- 
proach to  the  intellect  of  the  average  or  less 
than  average  quality.  While  it  is  true  that  peo- 
ple in  one  level  of  intelligence  are  absolutely 
barred  from  comprehending  things  that  are 
open  to  brighter  minds,  there  is  a  whole  range 
of  matters  —  covering  the  principal  concerns 
of  life  and  the  great  bulk  of  experience  —  rela- 
tive to  which  the  differences  between  different 
minds  is  a  question  of  approach.  The  70  per 
cent  with  a  mental  age  of  fourteen  are  not 
quite  hopeless.  In  most  matters  they  may  be 
taught,  but  their  interests  must  be  engaged  in 
another  fashion.  Their  senses,  rather  than  their 
common  sense,  must  be  appealed  to.  The  safe 
and  familiar  line  of  thought  must  be  used  as 
a  point  of  departure  for  new  ideas ;  even  prej- 
udices must  be  taken  into  account.  This  is  the 
type  of  adaptation  of  means  to  minds  so  skill- 
fully displayed  by  the  Hearst  newspapers. 

45 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

For  it  is  the  evident  and  sure  result  of  slow 
mentality  to  be  lacking  in  spontaneous  inter- 
est; to  be  hard  to  kindle  by  abstract  appeal. 
There  are  fewer  interests  to  lay  hold  of;  fewer 
ambitions  and  desires.  There  is  less  to  tie  up 
with.  The  type  of  mind  that  rocks  the  boat  for 
amusement,  and  that  "did  not  know  it  was 
loaded,"  is  not  easily  kept  to  any  one  line  of 
thought.  The  attention  wearies  easily,  and  can 
be  engaged  more  certainly  with  concrete,  mov- 
ing objects  and  immediate  interests  than  with 
the  distant  and  abstract.  Pictures,  action, 
drama,  the  basic  appeals  of  family,  sex  inter- 
ests, sports,  contest,  and  class  affiliation  — 
these  are  the  fundamental  sources  of  interest. 

Recently,  1  analyzed  the  amount  of  space  de- 
voted to  various  subjects  in  a  typical  edition  of 
each  of  the  two  newspapers  of  Boston  which  are 
credited  with  having  the  widest  influence  with 
the  mass  of  people.  The  one  which,  single- 
handed,  helped  to  elect  the  latest  Mayor  of 
Boston  divided  up  its  non-advertising  space 
somewhat  as  follows: 

Sports  318  column  inches 

Pictures  —  cartoons  308       "  " 

46 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

"Home"  pages  —  beauty- 
hints,  cooking  recipes, 
and  the  like  296  column  inches 

Crime  183       " 

General  news  162 

Including 

51  inches  of  sex  discussion 
53      "      on  accidents,  and  only 
18      "       each  on  what  I  considered    "legi- 
timate news"  and  on  business 
5>^  "       on  foreign  affairs,  and 
5      "       on  educational  matters. 

Politics,  including  a  good  part  of  political  scan- 
dal took  up  144  inches;  drama  and  movies, 
107  inches;  editorial  matter,  mainly  discuss- 
ing the  crime  and  scandal  detailed  in  the 
news  columns,  64  inches. 

It  will  be  seen  that  not  alone  are  the  serious 
interests  given  very  slight  attention,  but  that 
the  remainder  of  the  space  is  very  shrewdly 
disposed  to  catch  the  most  wa3rward  attention. 

The  other  influential  paper  had  much  the 
same  arrangement,  with  the  exception  of  the 
fact  that,  inasmuch  as  it  appeals  a  great  deal 
to  race  hatreds  and  foreign  prejudices,  it  is 
edited  for  those  who  do  not  easily  read  English, 
and  it  gave  551  inches  of  space  to  pictures. 

Personally,  I  do  not  feel  that  the  mere  appeal 

47 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

to  widespread  interest  is  in  itself  wicked.  Any 
harm  in  adapting  the  appeal  to  the  interests 
of  the  audience  lies  in  the  action  stimulated. 
Those  who  wish  to  stimulate  improvements  in 
public  manners,  habits,  and  morals  not  alone 
have  to  compete  with  the  shrewdest  mobilizers 
of  public  feeling,  but  even  must  do  so  by  ap- 
pealing to  the  same  interests,  if  they  intend  to 
succeed. 

The  adaptation  of  safety  instruction  to  the 
interests  and  attention-span  of  ordinary  minds 
is  well  suggested  in  some  rules  for  safety  bulle- 
tins offered  in  Bulletin  ']']  of  the  New  York 
State  Department  of  Labor,  on  "Industrial 
Accident  Prevention."  It  advises,  with  regard 
to 

Brevity  —  that  the  shorter  it  is  the  better. 
News  interest  —  that  it  be  kept  fresh. 
Statistics  —  that   they   be   shown   by   charts, 

rather  than  by  figures. 
Content  —  that  pictures  be  preferred  to  print. 
Style  —  that  it  be  humorous,  cartoons  being 

preferred  to  solemn  diagrams. 

And  it  might  have  gone  on  profitably  to  advise 
that  the  personal  interest  —  items  about  peo- 
ple —  be  preferred  to  ideas  about  things.  The 

48 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

Bulletins  of  the  National  Safety  Council  ad- 
mirably conform  to  these  canons,  but  it  is  help- 
ful to  consider  the  means  by  which  they  secure 
their  effects,  in  order  that  local  efforts  can  make 
sure  to  follow  the  same  principles. 

The  Cleveland  public  schools  have  put  safety 
into  the  curriculum,  and  with  a  splendid 
knowledge  of  pedagogy,  based  upon  a  compre- 
hension of  the  learning  powers  of  children  at 
different  mental  ages,  some  one  has  devised 
procedure  for  teaching  safety  to  children  pro- 
gressively in  the  different  grades.  His  plan 
might  well  be  extended  to  adults.  For  the 
things  that  are  given  to  very  young  children 
are  the  things  that  may  properly  be  most  em- 
phasized for  the  largest  number  of  adults.  The 
things  that  are  reserved  for  the  older  children 
must  be  reserved  for  a  smaller  number  of  adults. 

The  first  thing  in  the  right  curriculum  of  any 
school  of  safety  is  to  habituate  workers  to  the 
signs  of  danger  that  come  to  them  directly 
through  the  senses;  the  eyes,  the  ears,  the 
touch,  the  manual  habits,  etc.,  because  the 
most  universal  comprehension  comes  through 
the  senses.  It  is  instinctive  to  dodge  objects 

49 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

which  we  see  moving  toward  us,  to  jump  at 
strange  noises,  to  draw  away  from  harsh,  cold, 
or  hot  objects  coming  in  contact  with  the  touch. 
And  yet,  these  instincts  vary  with  different 
people,  and  the  promptness  with  which  they 
evidence  themselves  can  somewhat  be  culti- 
vated. Certainly,  safety  men  should  strive  to 
simplify  the  appeal  to  the  senses,  using  broad 
effects  of  color  sharply  defined,  large  type  let- 
tering, and  easily  differentiated  warning  bells. 

The  next  most  difficult  thing  to  comprehend 
and  learn  is  what  might  be  called  "static 
safety,"  which  consists  simply  in  knowing 
what  are  dangerous  places  and  dangerous  ma- 
chines. 

For  instance,  emery  wheels  and  belts  may 
have  hidden  defects  causing  them  at  any  mo- 
ment, without  warning,  to  fly  apart,  striking 
any  casual  passer-by.  But  the  line  of  travel  of 
flying  parts  can  be  accurately  mapped  and 
workers  can  be  taught  where  it  is  dangerous  to 
stand.  In  weaving,  shuttles  fly  out  of  looms  at 
nearly  predictable  intervals  with  something  of 
the  force  of  a  projectile,  and  eyes  may  be  put 
out  or  bones  broken  by  these  accidents.  But 

50 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

the  line  of  travel  of  flying  shuttles  can  nearly 
be  mapped  and  workers  can  be  taught  where 
it  is  dangerous  to  stand.  Crane-ways  can  be 
marked  and  workers  made  to  feel  that  it  is 
dangerous  to  stand  in  the  possible  path  of 
swinging  loads  of  molten  metal  and  heavy  ma- 
terials. When  the  rules  against  piling  obstruc- 
tions in  aisles  are  enforced,  and  aisles  are 
clearly  marked,  workers  can  be  taught  to  walk 
between  the  painted  lines. 

Such  knowledge  can  be  ingrained  in  the 
lowest  intelligence,  in  animals,  even,  and  may 
serve  to  keep  many  out  of  the  way  of  danger. 
The  information  may  need  to  be  conveyed  by 
discipline,  by  suggestion,  by  dramatic  meth- 
ods, by  anything  rather  than  simple  verbal 
warnings,  but  the  nature  of  the  information  is 
comprehensible  to  any  intellect. 

Next  comes  knowledge  of  safety  in  ordinary 
activities,  and  consists  in  knowing  what  are 
dangerous  movements  or  dangerous  phases  of 
processes.  Static  safety  deals  with  things  that 
remain  constant,  but  this  phase  of  safety  deals 
with  things  which  change  from  time  to  time,  but 
which,   nevertheless,    recur   regularly.  People 

SI 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

of  moderate  intelligence  can  be  taught  to  react 
habitually  to  such  conditions. 

The  time  of  starting  up  a  machine  which  has 
been  stopped  for  repairs  or  for  new  work  is  a 
dangerous  time  because  some  other  unsuspect- 
ing person  may  have  his  hands  on  working 
parts.  Belts  or  pulleys,  temporarily  unguarded, 
carelessly  piled  materials,  unguarded  gears  and 
rolls,  moving  elevators,  projecting  nails,  and 
slippery  floors,  are  all  conditions  which  work- 
men can  be  taught  to  recognize  and  react  to. 
Women  may  be  drilled  to  know  that  it  is  unsafe 
to  have  their  hair  unprotected  around  moving 
belts,  or  to  wear  loose  garments  which  may 
catch  in  the  machinery.  They  may  even  be 
made  to  feel  that  it  is  unwise  to  wear  high- 
heeled  shoes  at  work.  All  of  these  recognitions 
are  associated  in  the  mind  with  conditions, 
temporary  situations,  and  the  like,  which  do 
require  a  bit  more  judgment  and  discrimination 
than  a  mere  knowledge  of  dangerous  places, 
but  they  lie  wholly  within  the  sphere  of  the 
discipline  of  average  intelligence. 

Next,  and  rather  high  in  the  scale  of  knowl- 
edge, comes  training  in  acting  safely  in  extraor- 

52 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

dinary  conditions ;  unforeseeable  circumstances 
where  dangerous  conditions  develop  suddenly 
and  without  warning,  and  where  prompt 
and  effective  judgment  must  be  exercised 
to  save  the  lives,  sometimes,  of  many  peo- 
ple. I  remember  the  story  of  the  soldier  in 
a  dug-out,  with  many  other  soldiers,  who  was 
inspecting  his  hand  grenades  before  going  out 
on  duty  and  who  accidentally  pulled  the  pin 
of  a  grenade.  Knowing  that  a  tragedy  was  un- 
avoidable, and  merely  concerned  with  seeing 
that  his  own  accident  should  not  become  a 
general  disaster,  he  hugged  this  menacing 
bomb  to  his  stomach,  threw  himself  down  in 
the  corner  with  it,  his  back  to  the  crowd,  and 
so  got  most  of  the  effect  of  the  explosion  him- 
self. He  died  gloriously,  and  the  others  were 
saved. 

But  there  is  one  state  of  intelligence  higher 
even  than  this  good  judgment  and  it  can  be 
cultivated  only  in  a  few.  It  is  the  imaginative 
state  which  foresees  almost  all  possibilities  of 
danger  and  forestalls  them.  It  is  not  possible 
to  drill  the  great  mass  of  workers  in  this  fac- 
ulty, but  those  who  do  evidence  such  capacity 

53 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

can  be  made,  in  a  way,  the  custodians  of  the 
safety  of  less  high-geared  minds.  Every  such 
imaginative  person  enlisted  on  a  safety  com- 
mittee is  a  great  asset. 

The  aim  in  safety  education  should  be  to 
adapt  it  to  the  varying  degrees  of  intelligence 
in  the  factory.  Obviously,  some  ideas  are  more 
fundamental  than  others.  The  things  which  it 
is  necessary  to  know  about  accident  preven- 
tion can  be  classified  in  as  many  ways  as  the 
presumed  or  tested  intelligence  of  the  workers 
is  grouped. 

1.  Ideas  of  safety  which  every  workman  must 
get,  foreign-  as  well  as  English-speaking, 
mentally  deficient  as  well  as  highly  intelli- 
gent, young  as  well  as  mature. 

2.  Ideas  of  safety  involving  memory  and  obe- 
dience to  simple  instructions. 

3.  Ideas  of  safety  involving  application  of  ex- 
perience to  new  situations  —  judgment. 

4.  Ideas  of  safety  involving  imagination, 
ethics,  and  moral  character. 

When  the  material  to  be  taught  has  been  so 
classified,  the  manner  of  "putting  it  over" 
should  be  worked  out  so  that  each  class  of 
material  is  adapted  to  the  corresponding  grade 
of  intelligence  required.  The  "greatest  com- 

54 


THE  PUZZLED  MIND 

mon  denominator"  for  each  intelligence  group 
—  that  is,  the  type  of  appeal  which  will  hit  the 
greatest  number  of  them  —  should  be  pre- 
ferred. For  instance,  the  imparting  of  the  most 
necessary  and  general  group  of  ideas  should  be 
largely  by  means  of  pictures,  bright  colors,  and 
simple  language.  Whenever  possible,  habit- 
training  should  take  the  place  even  of  this  in- 
struction. 

On  the  other  hand,  instruction  in  the  fourth 
group  of  ideas  can  largely  dispense  with  pic- 
tures and  the  familiar  simplicities  of  safety, 
and  with  more  success  can  be  imparted  by 
means  that,  in  the  very  act  of  learning,  require 
employment  of  the  imagination,  discrimination 
in  ethical  feeling,  and  exercise  of  moral  charac- 
ter. The  discussions  of  shop  committees  repre- 
sent the  acme  of  such  education. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

The  physical  examination,  of  course,  would  not 
be  so  common  in  industry  to-day,  were  it  not 
for  the  V/orkmen's  Compensation  Acts.  Em- 
ployers feel  that  if  they  are  going  to  be  forced 
to  pay  out  money  to  compensate  operatives 
who  get  hurt,  no  matter  who  is  to  blame,  the 
least  they  should  do  for  self-protection  is  to 
engage  only  those  who  are  physically  sound. 
Obviously,  a  man  suffering  from  hernia  would 
be  a  "bad  risk"  on  a  heavy  lifting  job.  And  a 
case  of  cardiac  disease  should  preclude  an  ap- 
plicant from  attempting  to  run  an  elevator. 
Physical  examinations,  therefore,  are  instituted 
to  exclude  those  who  would  be  most  liable  to 
injury. 

In  general,  however,  employers  are  not  get- 
ting the  full  worth  of  their  money  from  these 
examinations.  This  primary  purpose  is  not  be- 
ing served  as  well  as  it  might  be.  The  deficiency 
is  not  that  the  medical  men  engaged  for  in- 

S6 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

dustrial  work  are  poorly  equipped,  but  that 
they  have  not  specified,  and  made  tests  for, 
the  appropriate  physical  requirements  of  me- 
chanical jobs.  Until  the  Workmen's  Compensa- 
tion Acts  secured  them  assignments  in  facto- 
ries, their  experience  with  physical  tests,  on  a 
scale  large  enough  to  develop  a  technique,  had 
been  gained  in  just  two  fields:  insurance  and 
the  army.  The  types  of  examination  which 
grew  up  in  these  fields  had,  in  each  case,  a 
special  purpose  in  view;  the  insurance  routine 
was  designed  to  exclude  applicants  found  suf- 
fering from  functional  diseases,  and  the  mili- 
tary examination  aimed  to  sift  out  rookies  who 
would  prove  unfit  for  campaigning. 

The  industrial  examination  is  an  outgrowth 
of  those  two  procedures.  They  had,  in  neither 
case,  pointed  to  the  disclosure  of  any  special 
accident  liability;  therefore,  the  industrial  rou- 
tine has  failed  to  do  so.  An  exception,  of 
course,  might  be  cited  in  the  case  of  railroad 
workers,  examined  for  color  sense,  for  ability 
to  hear  a  watch  tick,  and,  perhaps,  for  other 
minor  faculties.  But  even  the  railroad  exam- 
inations had  in  view  only  the  selection  of  men 

57 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

who  could  comprehend  signals  well  enough  lo 
avoid  wrecking  trains.  There  was  no  effective 
idea  of  preserving  employees  from  injuring 
themselves. 

With  the  routine  of  the  insurance  doctor 
before  them,  therefore,  and  such  forms  as  they 
could  get  from  the  Surgeon  General  of  the 
army,  and  from  company  physicians  in  the 
railroad  claim  departments,  the  early  indus- 
trial physicians  sat  down  and  devised  an  ex- 
amination blank.  Their  inspired  product  of  a 
decade  ago  is  used,  with  sterile  uniformity,  in 
most  factories  to-day.  They  have  advanced 
little  since,  and,  so  far  as  they  have  gone,  it  has 
been  chiefly  in  the  direction  of  medical  diag- 
nosis, rather  than  in  the  direction  of  appraising 
the  workmen's  native  equipment.  From  time 
to  time  they  have  added  Wasserman  tests, 
laboratory  tests  for  hookworm  (in  Southern 
mills),  medical  history,  and  other  items.  The 
recent  experience  of  many  of  the  doctors  in  the 
army  has  spruced  up  the  examination  form  a 
bit ;  it  has  caused  some  to  add  a  few  more  items, 
such  as,  "endocrine  system."  The  terminology 
is  a  little  more  standard. 

58 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

Little  by  little,  too,  the  experienced  workers 
in  the  plant  hospitals  have  learned  from  the 
accident  records  what  are  some  of  the  most 
definite  compensation  hazards.  This,  however, 
is  not  precisely  the  same  thing  as  discovering 
the  predisposing  accident  hazards.  For  instance, 
a  man  blind  in  one  eye  is  a  special  compensation 
risk,  because,  if  he  should  happen  to  lose  the 
other  eye,  the  company  would  have  to  pay  for 
total  blindness.  A  man  with  one  eye  defective, 
however,  is  also  an  accident  hazard.  If  he  lacks 
stereoscopic  vision,  he  cannot  accurately  judge 
distances.  If  he  is  nearsighted  or  otherwise 
deficient  in  focus,  he  may  stumble  into  an  ac- 
cident. Clearly  it  is  just  as  important  to  con- 
sider this  type  of  impairment  as  gross  injuries. 
But  they  are  not  so  patent.  It  is  easy  to  know 
the  direct  compensation  risks ;  they  show  up  on 
the  records.  It  requires  much  more  study,  and, 
oftentimes,  a  knowledge  of  particular  jobs,  to 
appreciate  the  more  subtle  accident  hazards. 
Hernias,  bad  hearts,  positive  tuberculosis  in- 
dications, missing  organs  and  members,  and 
epilepsy  (where  it  can  be  detected)  are  evident 
risks.  And  the  physician  has  not  been  urged  to 

59 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

inquire  beyond  such  possible  troubles  and  look 
for  more  obscure  ailments. 

It  is  surprising,  however,  that  so  little  atten- 
tion has  been  given  to  sense  defects,  which, 
while  they  have  a  less  obvious  bearing  on  com- 
pensation, exert  a  very  positive  influence  on 
accidents.  Even  physicians,  perhaps,  continue 
to  think  of  us  as  having  only  five  senses.  Al- 
most every  layman,  of  course,  would  say  that 
hearing,  seeing,  smelling,  tasting,  and  feeling 
complete  the  Hst  of  the  special  senses;  and  yet, 
one  dictionary  will  tell  you  that  we  have  seven, 
and  another  will  enumerate  twelve,  senses. 
Probably  the  list  will  grow  longer  in  the  course 
of  time,  but  twelve  senses  are  enough  for  the 
average  plant  physician  to  catch  up  on.  At 
present  he  inquires  into  but  two  of  them  — 
hearing  and  seeing  —  and  usually  stops  far 
short  of  adequate  tests  for  these  two. 

This  neglect  of  the  physicians  is  chargeable 
in  part  to  the  factory  executive.  No  profession 
advances  far  except  in  response  to  lay  criticism, 
and  the  work  of  the  industrial  doctor  has  n't 
been  critically  appraised.  Nor  has  he  been 
entirely  assimilated  into  the  organization  line- 

60 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

up.  His  part-time  status  and  his  professional 
exclusiveness  have  puzzled  the  industrial  ex- 
ecutive. Instead  of  reshaping  the  individualism 
of  the  doctor,  the  manager  has  allowed  him  to 
remain  outside  of  the  picture.  The  medical  ex- 
aminer has  not  been  asked  to  study  the  phys- 
ical requirements  of  jobs.  His  tests  for  fitness 
have  not  been  questioned.  If  he  wanted  to' 
stop  with  feeble  observations  of  eyesight  and 
hearing,  all  very  well.  No  one  knew  any  more 
than  he,  on  these  matters.  The  role  of  the 
other  senses  in  personal  efficiency,  certainly, 
is  not  commonly  appreciated.  Only  specialists 
in  psychology  realize  how  greatly  any  defects 
in  the  conscious  faculties  impair  the  scope  of 
the  intelligence.  The  average  person  seems  to 
feel  that  the  mind  can  operate  independently 
of  its  environment.  The  fact  that  faulty  infor- 
mation received  through  our  senses,  and,  espe- 
cially, that  failure  of  our  senses  to  furnish  us 
with  a  full  line  of  information,  cramps  our 
minds,  is  not  generally  given  a  thought,^...--- — ' 
We  have  no  communication  with  the  outside 
world,  however,  save  through  the  senses.  Our 
ideas  are  all  cast  in  the  form  of  our  sensations; 

6i 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

our  memory  is  a  persistent  record  of  visual  and 
other  impressions  received  from  the  senses. 
The  nervous  system,  with  its  end-organs,  its 
inherited  modes  of  response,  and  its  gradually 
fixed  condition  resulting  from  accumulated  ex- 
periences throughout  life,  is  at  once  all  that  we 
possess  as  minds  and  as  a  means  of  knowing  our 
environment  and  our  bodies.  The  nervous 
system,  including  the  senses,  is  a  means  and  a 
manner  which  parts  of  our  body  have  of  re- 
acting to  actual  physical  contacts  with  each 
other  and  with  the  outer  environment.  As  we 
walk  about  or  sit  at  our  desks,  we  feel  reason- 
ably free  of  personal  contacts,  but  we  have 
much  more  touching  us  than  our  clothes.  The 
hypothetical  ether,  the  air,  and  many  particles 
of  solid  matter  flow  around  us,  as  water  flows 
around  fish  in  the  ocean.  Some  elusive  fluid 
medium  is  always  about  us.  We  cannot  for 
one  second  push  them  all  away,  nor  keep  them 
still.  If  one  is  not  present,  another  rushes  in  to 
take  its  place.  We  are  aware  of  our  environ- 
ment, at  all,  only  through  its  reaching  out  and 
touching  us  directly,  or  by  its  setting  up  cur- 
rents in  the  surrounding  stream. 

62 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

And  what  marvelous  varieties  of  impressions 
the  contact  with  reahty  makes  upon  our  re- 
sponsive bodies!  What  waves  of  color  pene- 
trate our  eyeballs !  What  mazy  whirls  and  un- 
dulations in  the  air  roll  in  to  meet  the  delicate 
ear  drum  and  set  it  into  vibration  in  sympathy 
with  notes  of  music,  the  cries  of  the  street,  or 
the  crash  of  thunder!  And  when  we  walk  into 
the  garden  we  are  made  aware  of  its  blooms, 
not  only  by  the  vibration  of  color  sent  through 
the  ether,  but  also  by  airy  clouds  of  solid  par- 
ticles of  matter  that  enter  our  nostrils,  to  make 
us  conscious  of  their  odors.  Sight,  hearing,  and 
smell,  all,  are  nerve  responses  to  invisible  but 
very  real  tactual  stimulations.  Something  un- 
seen makes  an  impact  upon  our  very  bodies, 
in  each  case.  It  is  as  if  we  were  bombarded 
with  pure  energy. 

These  impressions  of  the  apparently  remote 
stimuli  come  and  go ;  they  compel  attention  by 
their  endless  variety.  Somewhat  less  keen  is  the 
sensation  and  awareness  we  get  from  actual 
physical  proximities  with  solid  matter  —  the 
sense  of  taste,  and  the  various  senses  of  touch 
—  heat,  cold,  pressure,  and  pain.  (There  are  at 

63 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

least  nine  subdivisions  of  touch).  The  first 
onset  of  such  contacts  —  such  as  the  bursting 
of  a  grape  upon  the  tongue,  the  touch  of  a 
warm  hand,  the  tingle  of  an  electric  battery  — 
may  be  more  thrilling  than  any  mere  visual 
impression,  but  there  is  less  play  and  variety 
in  such  contacts.  They  are  likely  to  be  sus- 
tained through  intervals  of  time,  and,  when 
they  are  long-continued,  sensibility  gradually 
fades  out.  Otherwise  we  should  not  be  able  to 
sit  for  hours  at  a  table,  reading.  If  the  mind 
remained  acutely  conscious  of  every  curve  of 
the  chair,  of  the  garments  that  cover  our 
limbs,  of  the  floor  under  our  feet,  we  should  be 
too  agitated  to  think. 

And  there  are  other  senses  of  which  we  are 
still  less  conscious  —  a  group  of  internal  sensa- 
tions flowing  from  the  adjustment  and  move- 
ments of  the  parts  of  the  organism  relative  to 
each  other.  The  semicircular  canals  in  the  ear 
have  in  themselves  the  faculty  of  recording  the 
variations  of  the  force  of  gravity  upon  the 
body,  and  thus  enabling  us  to  keep  our  balance. 
The  arteries,  the  muscles,  perhaps  other  tis- 
sues, record  relative  position,  through  nerves 

64 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

that  inform  us,  even  in  the  dark,  where  our 
various  members  are,  and  permit  us  to  direct 
them  as  we  please.  The  precision  with  which  a 
billiardist  strikes  the  cue  ball,  for  instance,  or 
with  which  a  telephone  operator  inserts  the 
right  terminal  plug  into  the  right  hole  in  the 
switchboard,  is  gained  by  the  internal  sense  of 
the  relative  position  of  the  muscles.  Even  the 
rhythmic  functioning  of  the  body,  the  breath- 
ing, the  pulse,  the  blood  pressure,  is  recorded 
in  our  sensations,  although  but  slightly  in  our 
consciousness.  Speech,  too,  is  a  product  of 
nerve  controls.  We  are  able  to  stretch  or  relax 
the  vocal  cords  and  to  vary  the  air  pressure 
upon  them  as  the  result  of  habits,  guided 
by  and  growing  out  of  the  internal  sensa- 
tions which  accompanied  accidental  variations 
in  these  movements  in  the  past.  Even  the 
abstract  conceptions  of  time  and  space  are 
but  relative  measurements  of  internal  sensa- 
tions. 

Not  for  the  mere  purpose  of  seeing,  hearing, 
and  feeling,  of  course,  are  we  given  this  mar- 
velous equipment  of  senses.  Pleasure,  aesthetic 
emotions  and  ideas  are  their  own  excuse  for 

6s 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

being,  it  is  true,  but  they  are,  after  all,  the 
mere  accompaniments  or  developments  of  more 
immediate  uses  of  the  nervous  organism.  The 
high  development  of  our  nervous  equipment  is 
a  product  of  evolution,  and  the  result  of  useful 
employment  of  the  senses  in  the  struggle  for 
existence.  Some  senses  are  less  acute  in  man 
than  commonly  in  other  animals,  because  less 
employed,  and  others  are  more  delicate.  Man's 
nose  is  duller,  his  eye  in  general  more  keen. 
The  field  of  vision  surveyed  jointly  by  both  of 
man's  eyes  is  ninety  degrees.  In  animals  it 
is  much  less  —  a  little  over  one  third  in  a  rab- 
bit, and  only  five  degrees  in  a  carp.  This  lowers 
the  comparative  visual  efficiency  of  an  animal, 
which  must  rely  more  upon  the  nose,  or  upon 
other  organs,  to  gauge  the  position  of  objects. 
This  may  offer  partially  the  reason  why  man's 
sense  of  smell  is  so  much  less  acute ;  he  does  not 
need  it.  It  is  rather  in  the  obscure  senses,  or 
sense  relationships,  the  work-a-day  faculties 
of  rhythm,  position  sense,  balance,  and  all  of 
the  variants  of  touch,  that  man's  capacity  for 
skilled  employment  lies.  And  in  these,  quite  as 
much  as  in  the  faculties  of  seeing  and  hearing, 

66 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

inheres  his  ability  to  avoid  the  awkward  move- 
ments that  resuh  in  accidents. 

If  one  man's  endowment  in  these  matters 
were  the  same  as  another's,  we  could  well  afford 
to  take  them  for  granted  and  ignore  them,  as 
now  we  do  in  our  physical  tests.  But  the  nat- 
ural sense  acuities  of  different  individuals  vary 
so  widely  that,  by  tests,  we  can  determine  in 
advance  whether  one  will  have  better  success 
than  another  in  certain  lines  of  activity.  We 
know  from  experience  that  jobs  differ  ever  so 
slightly  in  the  call  they  make  upon  strength  and 
intelligence;  will  bring  some  workers  to  grief, 
while  offering  the  opportunity  for  others  of  no 
greater  merit  to  succeed.  Such  anomalies  result 
from  fundamental  but  concealed  differences  in 
the  sense  equipment  of  different  individuals. 
The  studies  which  Miinsterberg  made  years 
ago  in  the  selection  of  telephone  operators, 
ship-workers,  motormen,  and  office-workers 
aimed  to  bring  to  light  the  hidden  sense  varia- 
tions which  had  a  relation  to  efficiency  in  each 
operation.  In  studying  clerical  operations,  he 
found  that  girls  who  were  most  rapid  and  ac- 
curate at  sorting  frequently  were  useless  on  the 

67 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

calculating  machine.  They  might  press  the 
wrong  keys  or  make  errors  in  copying  the 
totals.  In  light  mechanical  work,  some  women 
could  be  trained  accurately  to  grasp,  in  one 
movement,  a  dozen  pencils  —  no  more,  no  less. 
Others  who  failed  at  this  proved  efficient  at  the 
still  more  exacting  task  of  applying  gold  leaf  to 
pencils  before  stamping.  Dr.  Henry  C.  Link, 
in  tests  to  assign  girls  to  work  as  gangers  and 
inspectors,  found  that,  although  estimates  had 
considered  the  two  types  of  work  as  very  simi- 
lar, nearly  all  of  the  gangers  were  girls  who  had 
first  tried  inspection  and  had  failed.  On  closer 
study  he  found  there  was  a  difference  in  the 
sense  requirements. 

When  these  casual  investigations  reveal  such 
differences,  it  becomes  clear  that  a  more  general 
and  comprehensive  study  of  the  sense  require- 
ments of  jobs,  and  of  the  relative  endowments 
of  applicants  in  respect  to  the  particular  senses 
important  in  each  case,  would  yield  striking 
results.  As  no  such  broad  study  has  been  made 
in  industry,  this  is  a  mere  confident  specula- 
tion. But  I  feel  sure  that  experiments  in  this 
line  would  point  clearly  to  the  value  of  supple- 

68 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

menting  the  standardized  medical  examina- 
tion with  a  special  physical  test  —  for  strength, 
endurance,  and  sense  equipment,  varied  ac- 
cording to  type  of  work.  The  advisability  of 
such  special  fitting  of  men  to  jobs  as  a  measure 
of  increased  production  efficiency  seems  clear- 

The  necessity  of  such  adaptations  in  prevent- 
ing accidents  is  still  more  clear.  It  has  long 
been  recognized  by  safety  engineers  that  some 
men  were  "temperamentally  unsuited"  to 
certain  jobs.  Some  are  "slow,"  dull,  laggard  — 
apparently  too  clumsy  for  rapid-fire,  exacting 
work.  But  there  has  been  little  thought  of 
determining  by  test  the  relative  natural  speed 
of  workmen.  Just  what  the  individual's  nat- 
ural speed  is  can  be  determined  by  test  with 
apparatus  which  takes  a  man's  "reaction 
times." 

In  this  test,  the  subject  is  seated  at  a  table 
with  his  finger  on  a  telegraph  key.  At  a  signal, 
he  is  required  to  press,  and  then  release,  the 
key.  Although  the  reaction  appears  instantane- 
ous, there  proves  to  be  always  a  measurable 
interval  of  time  between  the  giving  of  the  signa  1 
and  the  pressure  on  the  key.  This  interval  is 

69 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

the  record  of  a  vital  human  experience  —  the 
epitome  of  all  our  responses.  A  flash  of  color 
waves,  or  an  eddy  of  sound,  has  traveled  from 
the  signal  to  the  eye  or  ear  of  the  subject, 
stimulated  his  brain,  sent  an  order  down 
through  the  nerves  of  his  arm,  and  caused  him 
to  press  the  key.  And  the  time  which  has 
elapsed  proves  to  have  varied  with  the  sub- 
ject ;  one  man  gets  and  acts  on  the  idea  quickly, 
the  other  slowly.  When  the  signal  was  flashed, 
by  the  same  motion  an  electric  current  was  set 
up,  and  a  pointer  on  a  dial  began  to  mark  off 
fractions  of  a  minute.  When  the  telegraph  key 
was  pressed,  the  electric  circuit  was,  by  that 
same  motion,  broken  and  the  pointer  was 
stopped.  The  pointer  moved  on  the  dial,  there- 
fore, only  while  the  subject  was  getting  and 
acting  on  an  idea,  and  the  time  interval  traced 
on  the  dial  is  the  subject's  "reaction  time"  to 
that  particular  stimulus.  He  will  have  different 
times  for  different  stimuli.  There  will  prove  to 
be  one  reaction  time  for  hot,  another  for  cold, 
one  for  touch,  and  still  others  for  sight  and 
sound. 

In  any  given  individual  these  times  vary  ac- 
70 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

cording  to  his  capacity  for  attention,  as  well  as 
according  to  his  physical  equipment.  In  child- 
hood and  in  old  age  they  will  be  slower.  The 
difference  between  individuals  is  recognized 
by  astronomers,  who  make  allowance  for  and 
check  against  the  "personal  equation,"  in  or- 
der to  assure  the  accuracy  of  celestial  observa- 
tions. 

Reaction  times  also  vary  according  to  the 
strength  of  the  stimulus.  A  loud  noise  or  a 
bright  light  will  produce  a  reaction  approxi- 
mately twice  as  rapid  as  a  faint  signal.  Par- 
tially deaf  people,  or  those  with  defective  vi- 
sion, therefore,  would  not  respond  as  rapidly, 
even  to  a  plainly  perceived  stimulus,  as  those 
who  received  a  livelier  impression.  Partial 
deafness  or  weak  eyesight  obviously  diminishes 
a  worker's  response  to  danger  signals. 

The  quickest  reaction  is  obtained  when  some 
warning  signal  precedes  the  exhibition  of  the 
agreed-upon  stimulus,  by  an  interval.  But  the 
necessity  of  stopping  to  recognize  and  discrim- 
inate between  signals,  or  of  choosing  between 
types  of  reaction  to  them,  lengthens  the  time. 
An  emotional  association  prolongs  it  greatly. 

71 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

So  we  see  that  the  intelHgence  and  mental 
balance  of  an  operative  also  have  a  good  deal 
to  do  with  his  "  pep  "  in  responding  to  changes 
in  his  surroundings. 

Closely  akin  to  reaction  times  is  the  matter  of 
rhythm.  "Every  person,"  says  Professor  C.  S. 
Myers, ^  "has  his  own  best  rate  of  repetition 
of  movement,  a  rhythm  peculiar  to  himself." 
The  exact  source  of  rhythm  is  not  established; 
but  it  is  clearly  an  illusion  of  the  senses,  cor- 
responding to  some  internal  adjustments.^ 
The  keenness  of  perception  fluctuates  regularly 
in  intervals  that  vary  for  difl^erent  individuals, 
so  that,  while  the  stimulus  responded  to  may  be 
constant,  the  responses  belie  the  fact.  If  a 
metronome  (such  as  music  students  use  to  keep 
time  by)  be  set  going,  or  any  other  regularly 
recurring  beat  sounded,  a  test  subject  listening 
will  hear  the  beats  in  groups  of  two,  three,  or 
four,  and  believe  that  the  first  beat  of  each 
group  is  accented.  As  the  rapidity  of  the  beat 
is  altered,  the  apparent  grouping  changes.  At 


^  Mind  and  Work.  New  York,  192 1. 
2  James    Burt    Miner.     "Motor    Visual    and    Applied 
Rhythms."  Psychological  Review  Supplement,  vol.  5,  No.  4. 

72 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

the  same  speed  of  the  metronome,  diflferent 
persons  will  form  them  mentally  into  different 
groups. 

And  not  only  does  the  subject  hear  rhythmi- 
cally, but,  without  knowing  it,  he  reacts  rhyth- 
mically. Thus,  it  is  possible  in  the  laboratory 
to  set  up  apparatus  that  records  the  unseen  and 
unsuspected  alternate  tensing  and  relaxing  of 
muscles  which  appear  to  be  still.  And  while  the 
recurring  signals  are  being  sounded  with  un- 
varied regularity,  the  motionless  subject  will 
record  his  rhythmic  arrangements  and  accent- 
ings  of  these  signals,  in  groups  of  two,  three,  or 
four.  This  is  his  particular  rhythm. 

When  sounds  or  sights  are  recurring  rhyth- 
mically, as  in  the  regular  accenting  of  the  first 
notes  of  musical  measures,  the  mind  tends  to 
form  temporary  habits  of  anticipating  these 
beats  by  its  own  perception  rhythms.  It  is 
obvious  that  some  such  accommodations  are 
difficult  and  others  easy.  It  is  common  ex- 
perience that  some  rhj^hms  are  pleasing  and 
others  too  slow  or  too  fast  for  steady  attention. 
People  differ,  too,  on  this.  Some  are  slow- 
moving,  some   quick   and  "snappy."    Others 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

have  no  sense  of  rhythm  at  all.  They  are  the 
poor  dancers,  the  people  who  abhor  "jazz." 
They  cannot  even  be  taught.  The  best  music 
schools  nowadays,  I  am  told,  test  the  rhythmic 
sense  of  would-be  students  and  reject  those 
who  are  unable,  as  the  expression  goes,  to 
"keep  time." 

It  has  been  said  that  a  slight  rhythmic  dis- 
turbance, incessantly  repeated,  would  cause  a 
tower  to  fall,  because  it  has  a  normal  sway  or 
rhythm  of  its  own  to  attend  to.  Certainly  fac- 
tory operatives  tire  when  they  must  respond 
continually  to  machine  rhythms  not  agreeable 
to  them.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  natural 
rhythms  help  them  to  perform  their  work  with 
less  weariness.  Cigar-makers  in  Havana  to- 
bacco factories  employ  singers  to  entertain 
them  at  their  work,  and  it  is  well  known  that 
negro  cotton  pickers  or  dock  workers  labor 
more  willingly  while  singing;  that  band  music 
relieves  the  fagged  soldiers  on  the  march;  and 
that  the  sailor's  chanty  helps  to  haul  in  the 
cables. 

It  is  quite  likely,  therefore,  that  there  is  an 
accident  hazard  in  putting  an  operative,  whose 

74 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

sense  of  rhythm  is  too  slow  or  too  unstable,  on 
a  dangerous  machine  with  regular  beat,  such 
as  a  punch  press.  If  he  get  out  of  time  with  the 
machine,  he  will  put  his  finger  under  the  die, 
and  leave  it  there.  A  marine  engine  tender  in 
turning  the  cap  of  an  oil  cup  has  to  insert  his 
arm  in  and  out  between  the  giant  strokes  of  the 
piston  once  every  revolution.  Just  what  would 
happen  if  his  sense  of  rhythm  were  deficient,  I 
cannot  say,  but  I  have  watched  many  times,  in 
the  expectation  of  seeing  him  insert  his  arm  at 
the  wrong  time. 

Even  the  little  considered  sense  of  balance 
plays  its  part  in  preserving  the  workman  from 
accident.  The  personal  variation  in  this  faculty 
is  not  usually  large  and  yet  some  people  are 
more  easily  made  ill  by  car-sickness  or  sea- 
sickness, or  by  riding  on  a  merry-go-round, 
than  others.  Some  become  thoroughly  unset- 
tled by  finding  themselves  on  high  places. 
Whereas  Blondin,  the  tight-rope  walker,  suc- 
cessfully crossed  Niagara  Falls  on  a  stretched 
wire,  the  average  person  cannot  walk  ten  feet 
on  a  railroad  rail.  In  selecting  aviators,  the 
Government  thought  it  worth  while  to  test 

75 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

applicants  for  balance  by  means  of  the  well- 
known  whirling  chair. 

So  it  comes  that  there  is  a  certain  cruelty  in 
assigning  persons  with  defective  semicircular 
canals  to  work  at  heights  or  where  the  footing 
is  insecure.  Every  skyscraper  costs  one  or  more 
lives  by  falls  from  the  skeleton  structure  under 
construction.  Many  a  maintenance  man  in  fac- 
tories falls  from  stepladders,  scaffolds,  or  ledges, 
because  he  too  easily  loses  his  balance. 

A  quite  different  type  of  danger  grows  out 
of  an  inaccurate  feeling  of  muscular  movement 
—  defective  position  sense.  Fancy  the  exacti- 
tude required  b}^  operatives  at  a  circular  saw 
which  cuts  ivory  nuts  up  into  pieces  suitable 
for  buttons !  The  worker  is  on  piece-work,  and 
with  lightning-like  rapidity  he  pushes  the 
many-shaped  nuts  up  to  the  saw.  His  fingers 
come  ever  so  close  —  if  but  a  fraction  of  an 
inch  closer,  they  will  be  snipped  off.  The  same 
accuracy  is  required  by  a  sewing-machine 
operative  on  men's  clothing,  when  he  fairly 
rips  a  seam  under  the  needle.  A  pierced  thumb 
will  be  the  penalty  of  a  faulty  move. 

Earlier  in  this  chapter  I  spoke  of  feeble  eye 

76 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

tests.  The  tests  are  feeble  —  they  do  not  al- 
ways show  up  feeble  vision.  For  instance,  they 
usually  stop  at  determining  an  applicant's 
ability  to  read  types  at  a  fixed  distance.  But 
even  separate  tests  for  each  eye  do  not  always 
show  up  defective  stereoscopic  vision.  The  lat- 
ter faculty  is  not  a  separate  sense,  but  a  rela- 
tionship between  the  somewhat  different  im- 
ages formed  by  the  two  separate  eyes.  It  is 
what  enables  us  to  judge  of  the  relative  near- 
ness of  objects.  A  victim  of  "squint,"  an  op- 
tical habit,  in  which  one  eye  lazily  gives  up 
looking,  or  a  person  whose  eyes  do  not  focus 
together,  will  see  images  in  two  dimensions, 
instead  of  in  three.  The  person  suffering  from 
either  of  these  impairments  will  be  forced  to 
estimate  the  relative  distance  of  objects  by 
comparing  their  apparent  sizes,  or  their  color 
intensity.  But  these  are  not  safe  guides.  A 
boxer  who  gets  an  eye  closed  must  soon  go 
down  or  quit  the  ring  because  he  can  no  longer 
tell  where  his  opponent's  blows  are.  We  may 
suppose  that  many  a  repairman  puts  his  fingers 
into  the  gears  because  his  eyes  do  not  ac- 
curately record  distance. 

77 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

We  have  two  ears  for  the  same  reason  that 
we  have  two  eyes  —  to  get  separate  impres- 
sions, for  purposes  of  comparison.  We  locate 
the  direction  of  a  sound  right  or  left,  front  or 
back,  by  an  unconscious  weighting  of  the  in- 
tensities of  the  sounds  separately  received,  and 
by  measuring  the  interval  of  time  between  the 
sounds  received,  first  in  the  nearer  ear,  and  then 
in  the  farther  one.  The  submarine  detector  de- 
veloped in  the  war  used  two  sound  receivers 
in  just  the  same  way,  recording  on  a  dial  the 
time  interval  between  the  two  vibrations.  If 
one  receiver  were  out  of  business,  the  whole 
apparatus  was  useless  for  pointing  directions. 
So  with  the  bi-aural  sense.  It  depends  upon 
two  good  ears,  and  it  has  a  value  in  dangerous 
operations  in  enabling  workmen  to  judge  the 
source  of  noises. 

Need  we  say  more?  The  need  of  a  good 
equipment  of  senses  is  abundantly  clear,  when 
we  consider  the  workman  in  dangerous  trades. 
His  senses  are  his  safety  messengers,  his  In- 
telligence Department,  which  tells  him  where 
the  enemy  is  concealed.  If  he  cannot  trust  his 
eyes,  if  he  cannot  believe  his  ears,  if  he  cannot 

78 


THE  MISGUIDED  MIND 

be  confident  of  his  own  movements,  his  is  a 
misguided  mind,  and  he  should  not  be  forced 
to  risk  his  life  in  contact  with  machinery.  In 
entering  upon  his  duties,  therefore,  he  is  en- 
titled to  a  rating  in  the  particular  physical  re- 
quirements of  his  assignment. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  STUBBORN  MIND 
Attitudes  that  resist  the  Safety  Gospel.  When 
the  pioneers  in  the  safety  movement  took  up 
their  task,  they  had  to  begin  by  attacking  a 
fundamental  trait  of  American  character  — 
cheerful  recklessness.  The  apparent  aim,  to 
study  and  provide  safe  operating  conditions, 
was,  in  itself,  a  big  enough  problem.  It  was  not 
easy  to  discover  what  was  safe  practice.  It  was, 
however,  a  still  harder  matter  to  make  people 
want  safe  working  conditions.  The  average 
American  is  disposed  to  take  chances.  He  does 
not  always  consciously  intend  to  do  so,  but  his 
nature  is  headstrong.  He  may  even  openly  and 
honestly  assent  to  "Safety  First"  preaching, 
serve  on  committees,  or  even  sometimes  direct 
such  work  as  a  safety  engineer,  while  himself  an 
inbred  dare-devil.  From  the  earliest  childhood, 
the  American  boy  is  taught  to  do  the  risky 
thing.  He  skates  on  the  first  thin  ice  of  winter, 
being  the  more  gleeful  about  it  because  it  is 

80 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

thin  ice.  In  the  summer  he  takes  high  dives 
into  shallow  water,  attempts  to  climb  the  high- 
est tree,  and,  while  playing  circus,  attempts 
impossible  stunts  to  thrill  his  onlookers.  He 
goes  to  the  movies  and  sees  Douglas  Fairbanks 
walk  the  peak  of  the  roof,  barefooted,  bearing 
a  lady  in  his  arms,  or,  with  his  single  trusty 
blade,  dispose  of  nine  cutthroats  at  a  slash; 
and  the  young  hopeful  is  minded  to  do  like 
deeds  of  derring-do.  He  sees  photographs  in 
the  Sunday  papers  of  airmen  jumping  from  one 
plane  to  another,  thousands  of  feet  above  the 
ground,  and  then  goes  out  and  tries  his  little 
darnedest  to  duplicate  the  spirit  of  the  stunt. 
A  few  years  later,  when  he  learns  to  drive  a 
motor  car,  his  measure  of  achievement  is  the 
speedometer.  He  thinks  it  particularly  skillful, 
moreover,  to  be  able  to  drive  with  only  one 
hand  on  the  wheel.  As  he  grows  older,  he 
drinks  and  engages  in  other  risky  pastimes, 
quite  as  much  in  a  spirit  of  daring  as  in  response 
to  wa5rward  prompting.  "Steve  Brodie  took  a 
chance"  is  one  of  his  mottoes.  And  another  is, 
"I  will  try  anything  once,  and,  if  I  like  it,  I 
will  try  it  again." 

8i 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

This  philosophy  soon  becomes  second  nature, 
and  when  a  war  comes,  we  praise  the  resuhs  it 
produces  in  the  courage,  ardor,  and  light- 
heartedness  of  our  soldiers.  We  proclaim  it 
abroad  as  American  grit.  We  immortalize  it 
as  the  Spirit  of  the  Argonne.  Then  we  bring 
our  young  men  together  in  factories  and  begin 
telling  them— "Don't  get  hurt"  — "Take 
care  of  your  hide"  —  "Think  safety"  —  and 
expect  them  to  do  so  because  we  have  put  up 
a  sign! 

Is  it  surprising  that  men  who  attend  melt- 
ing furnaces  in  factories  have  to  be  watched 
steadily  to  persuade  them  to  wear  goggles  to 
protect  their  eyes  from  splashes  of  hot  metal  ? 
Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  window  cleaners, 
perched  high  up  on  the  outside  of  a  building, 
neglect  to  attach  their  safety  belts  to  the  hooks 
on  the  window  frames,  when  tremulous  crowds 
applaud  their  reckless  courage?  Indeed,  do  I 
not  myself  prefer  to  drive  my  car  over  icy  roads 
without  skid  chains,  because  I  take  a  certain 
pride  in  my  ability  to  bring  the  bus  around 
after  it  starts  to  skid  ? 

No;  we  are  up  against  a  much  more  difficult 
82 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

task  than  we  suppose  in  attempting  to  get  men 
to  walk  in  the  ways  of  safety.  They  may  want 
to  be  good  fellows  and  to  act  cautiously,  but 
their  minds  are  bent  in  the  wrong  way.  It 
takes  some  pretty  fundamental  training  to 
counteract  the  inherent  tendency  of  the 
American  to  take  chances.  Horrible  examples 
alone  won't  do  it.  Very  few  men  can  be  scared 
into  keeping  their  fingers  out  of  the  buzz  saw. 
The  remedy  for  faulty  ideas  lies  in  a  somewhat 
different  direction,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 
Many  men  who  are  reckless  in  their  be- 
havior are  neither  braggarts  nor  excitable 
chance-takers;  they  are  merely  fatalists.  The 
majority  of  men  believe  that  they  are  fore- 
ordained to  die  on  a  certain  day,  and  that  till 
then  the  Lord  will  protect  them  up  to  the  very 
hour.  "I  figure,  if  your  time  has  come,  you  are 
bound  to  go,  whatever  you  do,"  they  will  say. 
And  the  implication  and  belief  are  that  one  may 
flirt  with  death  with  impunity  up  to  that  time. 
Reenforcing  this  fatalistic  belief  is  the  experi- 
ence every  one  has  had  with  "close  calls" 
which  resulted  in  no  damage.  I  once  saw  a 
Ford  car,  in  which  seven  men  were  riding, 

83 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

caught  between  two  street  cars  and  smashed 
so  completely  that  the  body  of  the  car  was 
later  cast  upon  the  side  of  the  street,  a  mere  pile 
of  junk;  and  none  of  the  men  was  seriously 
hurt.  It  seemed  miraculous.  Indeed,  it  was 
miraculous;  and,  doubtless,  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  escaped  the  view  was  impressed  that 
accidents,  if  they  occur  at  all,  are  "sent  on  you" 
by  Providence,  whether  you  exercise  precau- 
tion or  not. 

Many  who  feel  that  the  cause  of  accidents 
lies  outside  of  themselves  modify  their  fatalism 
by  belief  in  a  Providence  that  may  be  propi- 
tiated. In  their  faith,  misfortune  is  n't  exactly 
foreordained;  it  may  be  done  up  in  a  package 
with  your  name  and  address  on  it,  but  it  may 
not  actually  be  sent  to  you.  If  you  avoid  walk- 
ing under  a  ladder,  or  have  a  care  not  to  break 
a  looking-glass,  and  manage  to  look  at  a  new 
moon  only  over  the  right  shoulder,  you  will 
escape  bad  luck.  Few  men  and  women  admit 
superstitions,  but  fewer  still  will  flout  them. 
This  is  really  significant.  It  represents  a  vast 
influence  in  the  unconscious  mind  of  the  people, 
a  common  inheritance  of  religious  beliefs  em- 

84 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

bedded  in  the  race  since  savage  times.  It  is 
even  taken  over  as  a  respectable  element  of 
more  recent  religions,  most  of  whom,  by  their 
prayers,  admit  a  belief  in  a  Special  Providence 
that  looks  after  small  concerns  of  individuals. 

The  number  of  men  who  wear  charms,  rab- 
bit's feet,  relics  or  talismans  over  which  a  bless- 
ing has  been  spoken,  or  carry  lucky  coins,  is 
undoubtedly  greater  than  all  the  men  who 
practice  Safety  First.  Sailors  and  soldiers  carry 
mascots  with  them  as  some  sort  of  added  pro- 
tection in  battle.  In  popular  legend,  the  num- 
ber of  enemy  bullets  that  have  been  stopped, 
just  short  of  piercing  a  brave  heart,  by  the 
Providential  interposition  of  a  pocket  Testa- 
ment or  a  sweetheart's  picture  surely  equals 
the  total  number  of  fatalities! 

These  superstitions  are  important  as  a  fac- 
tor in  creating  indifference  to,  or  skepticism 
about,  safe  practices.  They  lie  at  the  root  of 
the  dangerous  fallacy  that  all  accidents  are 
accidental.  They  are  responsible  for  most  of 
the  inertia  which  safety  men  encounter  when 
they  first  attempt  to  interest  a  group  of  em- 
ployees in  measures  of  self-protection. 

8s 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

Inertia  is  not  always  frankly  related  to 
fatalism.  Oftentimes  it  takes  the  offensive  and 
resists  safe  practices  as  an  infringement  upon  a 
man's  natural  rights.  Many  resent  innovations 
or  consider  such  rules  as  those  requiring  them 
to  wear  goggles  as  a  reflection  upon  their  in- 
telligence. Such  reactions  would  hardly  be  felt, 
however,  if  there  were  not  more  reliance  upon 
predestination  than  upon  precaution. 

In  such  attitudes  as  we  have  mentioned  — 
bravado,  fatalism,  or  resentful  inertia  —  we 
see  exhibited  in  workmen  "mental  sets,"  tend- 
encies that  predispose  them  to  accidents. 
These  attitudes  exist  before  the  safety  gospel 
is  preached,  and  often  remain  firmly  rooted 
and  actively  opposed  to  safety  after  the  stub- 
born mind  has  appeared  to  give  assent  to  the 
gospel. 

And  there  are  other  ideas  which  stand  in  the 
way  of  safety  which  ought  to  be  mentioned  in 
passing  —  especially  fear  of  doctors.  When  in- 
fections occur  through  neglect  of  wounds,  or 
from  failure  to  go  to  the  hospital  for  treatment 
of  slight  abrasions,  in  many  cases  it  may  be  due 
to  the   distrust  of  the   medical   department. 

86 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

Poorly  trained  or  undeveloped  people  have  an 
instinctive  and  often  quite  unreasonable  fear 
of  hospitals,  and  of  surgeons,  nurses,  and  den- 
tists. They  have  an  inordinate  faith  in  the 
antiseptic  value  of  glue,  shellac,  chewing  to- 
bacco, gasoline,  and  the  like,  but  an  almost 
superstitious  fear  of  knives,  bandages,  ether, 
and  even  the  white  cleanliness  of  a  hospital. 
Many  ignorant  people  feel  that  to  go  to  the 
hospital  for  an  operation  is  equivalent  to  a 
death  sentence,  and  they  take  it  for  granted 
that  bearded  surgeons  in  white  aprons  take 
positive  enjoyment  in  cutting  into  human  flesh. 
Even  a  nurse  must  be  excessively  feminine, 
gentle,  and  ingratiating  to  counteract  the  pre- 
sumption in  many  minds  that  the  doctor's  as- 
sistant is  only  slightly  less  bloodthirsty  than 
he  is.  It  needs  all  of  the  human  wiles  on  the 
part  of  the  medical  department  and  its  good 
friend,  the  service  manager,  to  sell  the  idea  to 
workers  that  it  is  a  kindly  and  helpful  depart- 
ment, bent  upon  reducing  pain  instead  of  on 
inflicting  it.  We  have  all,  perhaps,  seen  the 
cartoon  of  the  little  boy  with  the  swollen  jaw 
writing  under  the  sign  of  the  so-called  Painless 

87 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

Dentist  the  vindictive  word  "liar."  We  must 
take  care  that  workers  do  not  write,  under  the 
sign  of  the  first-aid  hospital,  a  similar  comment. 
To  account  for  the  weird  attitude  of  many 
workers  toward  medical  departments,  we  have 
to  acknowledge  two  very  reasonable  explana- 
tions. In  the  first  place,  the  attitude  of  medi- 
cal people  in  this  country  was  formerly  not  all 
it  should  be,  particularly  toward  indigent  pa- 
tients in  free  clinics.  The  careless  practice  of 
medical  students  in  dealing  with  lifeless  sub- 
jects in  the  dissecting-room  sometimes  carried 
over  in  the  treatment  accorded  penniless  vic- 
tims of  disease.  And  a  prominent  physician  of 
my  acquaintance,  discussing  this  point  with 
me,  says  that,  in  European  hospitals,  with 
which  the  majority  of  our  workers  got  their 
early  experience,  the  attitude  is  still  as  callous 
as  it  formerly  was  here.  One  famous  surgeon 
in  Leipsic,  who  was  taking  my  friend  through 
a  medical  school,  said  that,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  instructing  students  at  a  clinic,  it  was 
preferable  to  have  the  subject,  even  a  woman, 
enter  the  amphitheater  entirely  nude.  To  the 
doctors^  probably,  there  was  no  violence  in  this 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

idea,  but  upon  a  woman  of  any  sensibility  at 
all  such  an  experience  would  produce  a  shock, 
and  leave  a  deeply  embedded  memory.  The 
sight  of  a  doctor,  henceforward,  would  always 
call  it  up,  with  a  feeling  of  disgust. 

Furthermore,  we  all  know  what  a  great  lore 
of  pseudo-medical  knowledge  exists  in  the 
minds  of  simple  people.  Grandmother's  home 
remedies,  consisting  of  herb  tea,  mustard 
plasters,  and  what  not,  are  all  intermingled  in 
their  faith  with  superstitious  rites  closely  re- 
lated to  the  voodoo  practices  of  the  negroes. 
Many  untrained  people  rely  upon  traditional 
medical  treatment  with  more  confidence  than 
upon  doctors,  who  have,  for  reasons  already 
stated,  so  many  forbidding  associations  at- 
tached to  them. 

It  is  clear  that,  when  such  prejudice  against 
doctors  exists,  there  is  a  mental  resistance  to 
the  rule  that  workers  should  go  at  once  to  the 
medical  department  for  a  dressing  of  even  the 
slightest  scratch,  to  avoid  infection. 

Different  workers  have  different  mental 
quirks.  One  man  may  subconsciously  resist 
safety  instructions  because  he  is  a  sullen  radi- 

89 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

cal,  and  wishes  to  believe  nothing  told  him  by 
capitalistic  employers.  Another  may  have  an 
unnatural  timidity,  and  fears  to  ask  his  fore- 
man for  instructions  which  he  needs  to  avoid 
accident.  Many  are  inordinately  given  to  horse- 
play, and  through  sheer  devilment,  but  without 
wicked  intention,  inclined  to  play  dangerous 
tricks  upon  their  fellow  workers.  Any  of  these 
and  many  other  ideas  or  bents  are  positive  pre- 
dispositions to  accident  and  must  be  dealt  with 
and  cleared  away  before  the  ordinary  routine 
of  accident  prevention  can  have  a  chance. 

The  chief  mental  resistance  to  good  safety 
ideas  —  aside  from  recklessness  —  comes  from 
so-called  chronic  kickers.  They  are  the  skep- 
tics, grouchers,  "ice-men"  —  however  they 
may  be  nicknamed  —  which  we  find  in  every 
organization.  Whether  their  obstructionism 
merely  takes  the  shape  of  objecting  to  new 
things  and  ideas,  which  is  a  form  of  laziness 
growing  out  of  the  middle-age  instinct  to  pro- 
tect our  habits  from  disturbance;  or  whether 
it  takes  the  form  of  positive  ill-will,  such  as 
taking  new  proposals  as  grievances,  involving 
threats  of  strikes,  demands  by  walking  dele- 

90 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

gates,  or  breaches  of  discipline  and  sabotage  — 
the  protest  of  the  chronic  kicker  is  an  expression 
of  an  "attitude"  which  helps  to  bar  the  way 
to  a  programme  of  action  for  safety.  The 
chronic  kicker  is  a  plague  spot  in  any  depart- 
ment, a  source  of  evil  contagion.  He  must 
either  be  won  over,  transferred  to  some  isolated 
post,  or  discharged.  It  is  rare  that  a  cause  can 
succeed  fully  in  spite  of  the  knocker;  usually  it 
is  an  uphill  fight  until  his  fellow  workers  have 
been  led  to  deal  with  him  or  he  is  nullified  by 
one  of  the  courses  suggested. 

Clearing  the  ground  for  ideas  of  safety.  With 
such  cases  in  mind,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how 
much  there  is  in  the  programme  of  safety 
which  consists  in  removing  ideas  already  in 
existence.  Few  of  us  have  the  patience  to  do 
this  consistently.  Sometimes  we  despair  be- 
cause arguments  do  not  move  people  to  do 
what  we  wish.  We  have  confidence  in  the  ar- 
guments. We  have  even  seen  them  work  suc- 
cessfully in  other  cases,  and  we  wonder  and  are 
annoyed  when  we  strike  cases  that  are  not 
amenable    to    arguments.  "For   the    love   of 

91 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

Mike,  Mutt,  listen  to  reason,"  begs  Jeff;  and  if 
we  understand  human  psychology,  we  shall 
have  more  hope  of  Mutt's  changing  his  course 
"for  the  love  of  Mike"  than  as  a  result  of  any 
trust  in  reasoning.  Emotions  and  prejudices, 
preexisting  ideas,  all  the  lumber  and  clutter 
which  years  of  emotional  experience  have  ac- 
cumulated in  our  minds,  have  far  more  influ- 
ence over  what  we  are  persuaded  to  do  than 
anything  we  come  at,  or  anything  that  is  put 
to  us,  in  terms  of  logic.  The  average  person 
first  decides  what  he  wants  to  do  as  the  result 
of  his  feelings  and  desires,  and  then  justifies 
himself  by  inventing  reasons  which,  he  pre- 
tends, govern  his  actions. 

What  determines,  then,  what  a  man  wants  to 
do  and  believe  ?  If  something  irrational  stands 
in  the  way  of  his  making  an  open-minded  ap- 
proach to  truth,  what  is  the  force  of  that  some- 
thing? Clearly,  there  is  an  emotional  element 
in  it,  because  men  feel  strongly  about  their  con- 
victions. Contemplate  two  Grand  Army  men 
in  an  Old  Soldiers'  Home,  engaged  in  an  argu- 
ment on  some  trivial  point.  They  flourish  their 
canes  in  violent  temper.  Two  country  loafers 

92 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

in  a  village  store  squabbling  over  politics  — 
matters  in  Washington  quite  out  of  the  field  of 
their  personal  interests  —  evidence  a  degree  of 
feeling  which  they  are  not  likely  to  experience 
in  a  domestic  crisis  in  their  own  family.  They 
are  engaged  in  argument,  in  each  case,  not  for 
the  purpose  of  submitting  their  views  to  the 
test  of  reason  —  they  do  not  consider  the  possi- 
bility of  altering  their  own  positions,  nor  so 
much  hope  to  convince  their  opponents  as  to 
show  them  up.  The  impelling  force  to  get  into 
the  argument  at  all  is  emotional ;  they  feel  that 
they  must  "stand  up  for"  their  own  side  — 
they  identify  themselves  with  their  opinions, 
as  with  a  glorious  cause. 

This  emotional  reaction,  this  unalterable  re- 
sistance to  reason  in  certain  matters,  which  we 
all  experience,  is  called  "persuasion"  or  "con- 
viction," and  has  a  special  significance  for 
psychologists.  They  know  on  how  few  ques- 
tions people  can  be  lined  up  on  the  showing  of 
the  facts.  They  know  that  persuasion  is  likely 
to  be  independent,  even ,  of  plain  self-interest. 
Indeed,  in  the  average  citizen's  philosophy,  it 
is  generally  considered  a  mark  of  superior  de- 

93 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

tachment  and  logic  when  a  man  does  form  his 
views  on  the  basis  of  a  clear  perception  of  his 
own  interests.  It  is  assumed  that  men  should 
be  expected  to  differ  in  their  opinions  about 
principles  and  facts,  in  proportion  as  the  prin- 
ciples and  facts  are  helpful  or  hurtful  to  them. 
But  we  know  that  they  often  take  positions 
contrary  to  their  class  or  business  interests,  not 
because  of  altruism  or  devotion  to  truth,  but 
because  of  some  prior  conviction  to  which  they 
are  hotly  committed. 

Persuasions  are  conscious  attitudes,  but  there 
is  a  whole  host  of  unconscious  attitudes  —  pre- 
conceived feelings  and  beliefs  and  tendencies, 
which  rule  our  conduct,  as  we  say,  instinctively. 
Attitudes  such  as  we  discussed  —  recklessness, 
fatalism,  shrinking  from  doctors,  disbelief  in 
the  truthfulness  of  management,  timidity, 
horseplay,  kicking  against  improvements,  etc. 
—  are  generally  unconsciously  assumed.  We 
do  not  generally  stop  to  reason  about  why  we 
feel  strongly  about  certain  questions.  We  are 
hardly  aware  of  the  fact  that  we  have  an  atti- 
tude ready  for  all  occasions  on  which  these 
questions  arise.  We  simply  react. 

94 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

Attitudes  are  of  all  kinds;  love,  hope,  rage, 
fear,  shyness,  jealousy,  envy,  shame,  and  re- 
morse are  merely  types.  Such  attitudes  are 
emotional  states  of  mind  which  we  feel  in  con- 
nection with  certain  people  or  situations  at 
every  mention  or  appearance  of  these  factors. 
Warren^  says,  "A  man's  attitude  toward  any 
situation  that  confronts  him  is  quite  as  im- 
portant a  factor  in  his  mental  life  as  the  nature 
of  the  specific  stimuli  that  enter  into  that  situa- 
tion." And  Watson^  says,  "Attitudes  actually 
function  by  limiting  the  range  of  stimuli  to 
which  a  person  is  sensitive." 

The  source  of  an  attitude  is  not  always  clear. 
The  element  of  lack  of  logic  which  is  generally 
so  evident  to  us  —  at  least,  in  the  feelings  of 
others  than  ourselves  —  points  to  the  probable 
validity  of  Watson's  explanation  that  an  atti- 
tude is  the  emotional  outlet  for  a  desire  that 
has  been  thwarted  in  some  other  direction. 
For  instance,  take  the  criminally  reckless  man ; 
his  attitude  of  indifference  to  danger  may  be 
an  unconscious  pose.  It  may  be  his  bid  for 

*  Howard  C.  Warren,  Human  Psychology. 

*  John  B.  Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a 
Behaviorist. 

95 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

popular  esteem  of  his  bravery,  growing  out  of 
a  failure  to  win  success  in  love,  in  sport,  in 
work,  or  in  some  other  direction  dear  to  his 
heart.  Indeed,  the  spurned  lover  often  threat- 
ens to  "get  reckless."  Many  a  schoolboy, 
"spelled  down"  by  the  young  lady  who  has 
dazzled  his  youthful  fancy,  has  turned  against 
all  of  his  studies  in  chagrin.  An  attitude  of 
truancy  and  indifference  to  school  work  gener- 
ally has  an  emotional  source  remote  from  the 
outlet.  It  is  probably  true,  also,  of  the  work  of 
grown-ups. 

A  sewing-machine  operator  in  a  Cleveland 
garment  factory  "threw  up  her  job"  because 
of  a  feeling  that  a  fellow  worker  was  favored  in 
the  allotment  of  work.  By  so  doing,  she  for- 
feited her  rating  as  an  employee  of  nine  years' 
service.  She  was  told  that  if  she  were  reem- 
ployed it  must  be  as  a  beginner,  so  far  as  extra 
payment  in  the  form  of  a  "service  bonus"  was 
concerned.  She  did  later  come  back  for  her  old 
job,  and  was  reemployed,  but  not  reinstated  on 
the  service  bonus.  This,  she  felt,  was  an  in- 
justice, and  from  that  time  on  she  was  a  source 
of  discord  and  complaint,  strongly  contrasting 

96 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

with  her  conduct  for  years  past.  Her  attitude 
was  not  frankly  related  in  her  mind  to  its 
cause,  but  it,  nevertheless,  changed  when  her 
service  bonus  was  restored. 

A  foreman  in  a  Detroit  factory  was  promised 
a  salary  increase  on  a  certain  date,  but  he  re- 
ceived neither  the  increase  nor  an  explanation. 
He  became  surly  and  uncooperative,  and  it  was 
six  months  before  the  reason  and  the  cure  were 
revealed.  Such  an  instance  appears  obvious 
and  trivial,  but  it  is  important  to  point  out  that 
an  attitude  with  a  very  simple  basis  is  often 
kept  mysterious  because  of  a  man's  natural 
reluctance  to  discuss  the  cause  of  an  emotional 
disturbance,  once  the  first  noisy  mood  of  anger 
has  gone  by  ineffectually. 

In  dealing  with  the  attitudes  which  interfere 
with  instruction  in  safety  principles,  we  have 
to  proceed  with  a  course  suggested  by  these 
explanations  of  the  causes  of  attitudes.  If  it  is 
true  that  they  are  outlets  for  thwarted  emo- 
tions, we  must  find  a  helpful  alternative  outlet, 
and,  if  possible,  substitute  it  for  the  trouble- 
some one.  It  is  a  well-known  principle,  in  deal- 
ing with  "  bad  boys,"  bullies,  and  kickers,  that 

97 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

to  make  them  responsible  for  carrying  out  suc- 
cessfully a  programme  which  they  have  re- 
sisted often  makes  them  enthusiastic  boosters 
for  it.  A  rebellious  follower  often  makes  an 
iron-handed  leader.  This  is  likely  to  be  true, 
especially,  where  his  rebellion  has  been  related 
to  chagrin  over  some  humiliation,  failure,  or 
subordination.  Success,  in  terms  of  leadership, 
may  quite  make  up  for  the  failure  in  the  former 
case,  and,  with  a  proper  emotional  outlet  se- 
cured, the  undesirable  attitude  disappears. 

In  the  cases  of  willfully  reckless  men,  I 
think  it  quite  reasonable  to  regard  their  atti- 
tude as  a  form  of  showing  off,  which  is  a  neces- 
sary compensation  for  some  failure.  If  they  can 
get  their  emotional  easement  by  success  in 
another  direction,  such  as  promotion,  conspic- 
uous committee  service,  or  athletic  victory, 
they  may  become  subdued  and  sensible. 

The  kicker  can  often  be  cured  by  his  being 
assigned  to  a  position  where  he  has  to  listen  to 
the  complaints  of  others  and  must  do  some- 
thing to  answer  them.  A  job  such  as  the  chair- 
manship of  a  cafeteria  committee  which  has  to 
choose  menus,  or  as  umpire  at  an  athletic  con- 

98 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

test,  will  sometimes  soften  the  mood  he  shows 
toward  the  affairs  of  the  organization. 

The  mental  set.  There  are  times  when  faulty 
attitudes  affect  the  whole  character,  and  give  a 
"mental  set"  which  not  only  affects  reactions 
to  particular  questions,  but  influences  even  the 
way  the  mind  itself  acts. 

The  worker  of  highly  excitable  disposition, 
of  whom  we  spoke  in  Chapter  I,  was  perhaps 
too  hastily  condemned  as  a  temperamental  mis- 
fit. We  disposed  of  him  as  an  unsafe  man,  who 
should  be  excluded  at  the  time  of  selection  in 
preference  to  safeguarding  him  with  special 
protection,  which  we  have  n't  time  to  give. 
For  the  average  factory,  indeed,  exclusion  or 
isolation  are  the  only  possible  courses.  Unless 
he  can  be  wisely  taken  in  hand,  he  is  a  menace. 

And  yet,  strangely  enough,  if  properly  han- 
dled by  patient  service  workers,  he  can  often 
be  made  not  only  a  very  safe  man,  but  an  ex- 
tremely valuable  worker. 

In  every  instance  of  excitement  we  observe 
that  there  is  a  bodily  condition,  an  exciting 
cause,  and  a  mental  condition.  The  bodily  con- 

99 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

dition  —  already  described  —  is  either  an  in- 
duced state  of  excitement  growing  out  of  dis- 
ease, or  some  recent  explosive  event,  the  ef- 
fects of  which  are  still  felt ;  or  else  it  is  an  inborn 
responsiveness  of  nerves,  special  senses,  and 
ductless  glands.  The  exciting  cause  is  an  event 
or  situation  or  personality  which  is  recognized 
as  a  source  of  danger,  pain,  or  pleasure.  The 
element  of  recognition,  however,  is  the  im- 
portant thing;  it  is  the  mental  condition  which 
translates  the  exciting  cause  into  a  bodily  con- 
dition of  excitement  leading  to  action.  No 
matter  how  responsive  a  man's  nervous  organ- 
ization may  be,  no  matter  how  actual  the  dan- 
ger of  a  given  situation  in  which  he  finds  him- 
self, if  he  fails  to  recognize  a  danger,  he  suffers 
from  no  excitement.  It  is  the  recognition  which 
sets  off  the  emotional  explosion. 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  the  excitable 
man  is  that  he  recognizes  more  dangers  and 
difficulties  than  really  exist.  It  is  true  of  him, 
as  it  was  of  the  man  who  said,  "I  have  lived  a 
long  life  and  had  many  troubles,  only  most  of 
them  never  happened!"  In  other  words,  his 
excitability  is  in  part  due  to  special  attitudes, 

100 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

which  exhibit  the  irrationality  of  most  atti- 
tudes, and  it  is  possible,  by  mental  therapeu- 
tics, oftentimes  to  implant  new  and  better  atti- 
tudes. 

The  highly  responsive  man  is,  in  this  matter, 
an  especially  hopeful  case.  Unlike  the  brag- 
gart, or  sullen,  or  reckless  man  who  resists 
safety  principles,  the  over-excitable  man  is 
usually  anxious  to  correct  his  attitudes.  His 
bodily  condition  and  the  fears  and  distempers 
which  produce  it  are  painful  to  him.  He  in- 
tensely desires  to  be  calm  and  confident.  A 
friend  who  wishes  to  help  him  develop  new  at- 
titudes will,  therefore,  find  ready  cooperation. 

The  most  important  attitude  which  the  over- 
sensitive man  has  to  overcome  is  fear.  He  fears 
the  loss  of  his  job,  he  anticipates  failure  on  the 
given  task,  he  shrinks  from  possible  reproof 
from  his  boss  or  ridicule  from  his  fellow  workers, 
and,  if  that  is  n't  sufficient,  he  may  either  fear 
for  his  health  or  the  health  of  his  family.  The 
doctor  might  have  told  him  that  he  had  a  float- 
ing kidney  or  a  leaky  heart  or  a  touch  of  tuber- 
culosis. His  wife  may  be  approaching  confine- 
ment. The  landlord  may  be  threatening  evic- 

lOI 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

tion.  In  this  state  of  worry  he  fears  the  ringing 
of  a  telephone,  the  receipt  of  a  letter,  a  call  to 
the  office,  or  even  the  mere  casual  approach 
of  his  foreman.  Anything  that  hints  of  the 
imparting  of  news  looks  to  him  like  trouble 
coming. 

He  may  not  be  a  coward,  with  all  that.  He 
may  stand  physical  pain  without  flinching  and 
grief  without  despair,  and  may  be  able  to  force 
himself  into  the  very  cannon's  mouth.  But  his 
lively  imagination  presents  pictures  of  suffer- 
ing more  terrible  than  the  actual  experience  of 
the  torpid  mind. 

It  should  be  admitted,  however,  that  courage 
is  the  best  cure  for  fear,  and  that  the  man  who 
has  learned  to  take  punishment  and  has  even 
eagerly  gone  out  to  get  the  discipline  of  punish- 
ment, has  advanced  halfway  toward  the  con- 
quest of  fear.  Pain,  borne  voluntarily  for  some 
resulting  good,  such  as  sacrifice  for  a  loved 
one,  or  even  so  slight  a  recompense  as  the  satis- 
faction of  exhibiting  stoicism,  is  not  nearly  so 
difficult  to  bear  as  pain  that  overtakes  us  in 
panic.  The  imminence  of  such  pain's  recurring 
cannot  possibly  arouse  emotions  of  terrror  when 

I02 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

some  suggestion  of  beauty  and  gladness  are 
carried  with  it. 

The  other  fears  of  industry  can  also  be 
faced  and  put  down,  each  in  its  own  way.  Fear 
of  losing  the  job  can  be  exorcised  by  doing  a 
better  day's  work,  or  by  opening  up  a  savings 
account,  so  that  the  chance  of  discharge  or  the 
consequences  of  it,  should  it  come,  seem  less 
serious.  Fear  of  the  personal  reproaches  or 
ridicule  of  bosses  or  fellow  workers  can  usually 
be  supplanted  by  one's  going  over  from  a  pas- 
sive, non-resistant  attitude  toward  an  active, 
friendly,  inquiring  attitude  toward  them;  be- 
cause it  is  usually  discovered  by  that  ap- 
proach what  really  harmless,  self-conscious 
idiots  even  the  most  forbidding  persons  are. 

But  this  is  not  the  place  to  expand  on  how 
to  get  on  with  people.  It  is  necessary,  only,  to 
make  the  point  that  fears  and  other  emotions 
that  keep  some  temperaments  excited  are 
usually  based  on  irrational  attitudes,  and  that 
when  the  false  persuasions  are  replaced  by 
accurate  judgments  most  of  the  occasions  for 
emotional  excitement  disappear.  The  reori- 
ented victim  of  emotionality  then  becomes  a 

103 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

merely  alert,  responsible  man,  more  safe  from 
accident  than  the  average.  What  he  has  left, 
after  his  irrational  attitudes  are  corrected,  is  a 
finely  organized  nervous  system,  all  set  to  "go 
off"  at  the  slightest  stimulus  of  the  legitimate 
demands  of  the  job. 

We  should  not  leave  the  question  of  the  over- 
excitable  man  without  another  word  in  his 
favor.  We  should  admit  that  not  all  the  burden 
of  calming  his  emotions  should  rest  upon  him. 
His  fellow  workers  and  his  bosses  have  also  the 
obligation  of  "tempering  the  wind  to  the  shorn 
Iamb."  Fine  temperaments  deserve  to  be 
treated  with  as  much  consideration  as  delicate 
machinery.  Harsh  words  and  ridicule  should  be 
saved  for  those  who  can  stand  them  without 
shock.  Better  still,  no  harsh  words  at  all; 
and  instead  of  the  bitterness  of  ridicule, 
genuine  laughter  and  the  good  will  of  con- 
tented men,  happy  in  their  jobs !  In  the  proper 
atmosphere,  almost  any  temperament  can  be- 
have normally. 

Subconscious  errors.  Faulty  ideas  and  resist- 
ant attitudes  are  not  the  only  forms  of  "  know- 

104 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

ing  what  ain't  so."  There  are  also  quite  natural 
subconscious  errors  in  which  the  mind  tricks 
itself,  not  in  emotional  matters,  but  in  respect 
to  mere  facts. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  opening  chapter,  I 
mentioned  an  instance  of  subconscious  error, 
where  the  mind  made,  entirely  unconsciously, 
a  faulty  assumption  leading  to  an  accident.  It 
is  typical  of  a  not  rare  case  where  our  senses  fail 
us  and  we  jump  at  conclusions,  associating  in 
our  minds  unrealities  with  realities,  because 
previous  experience  justified  the  association. 

Professor  Edward  L.  Thorndike,  in  his  book, 
"Educational  Psychology,"  points  out  how 
animals  are  taught  to  perform  or  act  in  a 
customary  way  by  association  of  ideas.  Thus, 
it  is  natural  for  a  monkey,  when  a  banana  is 
thrust  through  the  bars  of  his  cage,  to  spring 
at  it.  But  he  may  be  taught  by  association  of 
ideas  to  go  to  the  very  top  of  his  cage  as  the 
first  step  in  securing  possession  of  the  fruit. 
When  a  dog  has  been  taught  to  sit  up  as  a 
means  of  securing  food,  and  has  learned  to 
identify  a  coaxing  tone  of  voice  with  the  effort 
and  with  the  reward,  he  may  be  persuaded  to 

los 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

sit  up  at  command  even  though  he  sees  no 
reward  forthcoming. 

These  are  merely  examples  of  the  tendency 
of  the  mind  to  act  in  an  unbroken  series  of 
steps  when  a  mental  habit  has  been  formed, 
and,  when  the  process  has  started,  to  continue 
to  the  end,  even  when  part  of  the  occasion  is 
removed.  Thus,  if  a  worker  has  become  ac- 
customed to  a  safeguard  on  a  machine  and  for 
good  reason  deliberately  removes  the  safeguard, 
he  is  in  greater  danger  precisely  because  he  has 
been  accustomed  to  feel  safe  around  the  ma- 
chine. His  senses  are  lulled  to  sleep  and  sub- 
consciously he  makes  errors  that  a  less  in- 
structed person  would  have  avoided.  To  avoid 
the  difficulties  of  subconscious  error  due  to 
misleading  association  of  ideas,  safety  engi- 
neers should  assume  that,  where  safety  routine 
is  changed,  all  who  have  become  accustomed  to 
it  are  thereby  predisposed  to  accident.  We  are 
familiar  with  the  difficulties  into  which  we  fall 
when,  having  been  accustomed  to  driving  one 
,  style  of  automobile  with  brakes,  gear-shifts, 
gas  controls,  etc.,  in  one  position,  we  change  to 
a  car  of  different  make.  In  the  new  car,  we  may 

io6 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

say  we  are  subconsciously  predisposed  to  acci- 
dent. And  when  workmen  change  from  one 
machine  tool  to  another  of  slightly  different 
layout  or  dimension,  they  may  carry  with  them 
the  mental  association  of  their  previous  work 
and  be  predisposed  to  accident  in  the  new 
situation. 

In  the  printing  department  of  a  large  tag 
manufacturing  concern  there  is  one  type  of 
press  which  has  a  different  cam  arrangement 
from  all  the  rest.  In  the  majority  of  the  ma- 
chines the  upper  press  comes  down  slowly,  and 
picks  off  quickly.  The  operator  has  ample 
time  to  withdraw  his  hand  after  inserting  a  slip 
of  paper.  But  in  the  one  type  of  machine,  by  a 
rearrangement  of  cams,  the  press  comes  to- 
gether with  an  accelerated  movement  at  the 
strike,  and  picks  off  slowly.  On  this  type  of 
machine  the  accidents  are  ten  times  more 
numerous  than  on  the  others.  The  very  fact 
that  operatives  are  accustomed  to  the  presses 
with  a  slow  strike  may  account  for  the  accidents 
when  they  work  on  the  few  machines  with  a 
quick  strike.  Even  continuous  work  on  these 
machines  might  not  habituate  the  operatives 

107 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

to  the  trickiness  of  a  movement  that  acceler- 
ates just  at  the  last  second,  like  the  spring  of  3 
cat.  The  subconscious  factor  of  error  might 
be  compelling. 

When  a  series  of  accidents  results  in  any 
given  situation  without  apparent  good  reason, 
we  may  hopefully  ask  ourselves :  Why  does  the 
mind  stubbornly  fall  into  this  error.''  For  the 
greater  the  bent  to  act  in  a  certain  way,  the 
easier  it  is,  up  to  a  certain  point,  to  side-step 
an  automatic  chain  of  associated  ideas  and  get 
on  to  another  track.  The  more  predictable  the 
accident,  the  more  preventable.  At  first,  the 
situation  may  defy  analysis.  The  mental  key 
is  lacking.  The  answer,  of  course,  lies  in  the 
single  word  "association."  If  we  can  only  find 
with  what  normal  and  innocent  expectation  an 
unsafe  act  is  associated,  we  can  cut  out  the 
unhappy  end  by  not  letting  the  chain  of 
thought  get  started.  The  simplest  and  most 
important  case  of  this  type,  of  course,  is  the 
artificially  created  expectancy  of  a  warning  in 
unsafe  condition-^  which  leads  to  an  accident 
when  the  warning  is  not  given.  Every  grade 
crossing  which  is  abolished  by  depressing  or 

io8 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

elevating  railroad  tracks  makes  the  remaining 
ones  more  dangerous.  The  more  we  become 
accustomed  to  expecting  watchmen  or  bell 
signals  to  warn  us  of  approaching  trains  at 
crossings,  the  more  liable  we  are  to  take  an 
unguarded  crossing  for  granted  as  safe.  The 
crews  on  freight  trains  come  to  expect  the  lash 
of  suspended  whips  somewhat  before  they  come 
to  a  low  bridge.  If,  then,  such  warning  be 
absent  where  it  is  needed,  it  might  easily  cause 
d  brakeman  to  dash  his  head  against  a  bridge, 
even  in  broad  daylight. 

Up  to  a  certain  point,  standard  conditions 
are  a  menace  to  safety,  because,  by  creating 
certain  expectation  in  the  minds  of  work- 
ers, they  render  the  exceptions  to  standard 
methods  more  dangerous.  The  remedy  for 
the  evils  of  standardization,  however,  in  this 
respect,  at  least,  is  more  standardization. 
Either  all  similar  conditions  and  operations 
must  be  reproduced  exactly  alike,  or  the  neces- 
sary exceptions  must  be  disguised  out  of  any 
apparent  likeness  to  the  expected  conditions. 
Perhaps,  for  instance,  if  a  small  bell,  could  be 
attached  to  those  tricky  printing  presses  and 

IC9 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

caused  to  ring  each  time  just  before  the  machine 
picked  up  speed,  the  operative  would  be  stim- 
ulated to  draw  his  hand  out  in  time.  This,  how- 
ever, might  create  the  expectation  of  a  bell  on 
all  the  other  machines.  If  so,  the  difficulty 
could  be  solved  by  belling  them  all,  and  con- 
trolling them  so  that,  whatever  the  speed 
variation  between  the  operation  itself,  the  bell 
would  ring  at  a  uniform  interval  before  the 
strike. 

The  secret  of  the  need  of  standard  conditions 
lies  in  the  fact  that,  just  as  action  in  familiar 
work  tends  to  become  habitual,  so  thinking 
tends  to  become  automatic  or  subconscious. 
Given  a  suggestion  of  a  familiar  chain  of 
thought,  the  mind  tends  to  go  on  without 
further  stimulus  and  complete  the  series  of 
ideas  that,  originally,  had  to  be  personally  con- 
ducted all  the  way.  When  the  factory  man- 
agement, therefore,  takes  a  simple-minded 
man  and  presents  before  him  a  situation  or  a 
machine  that  looks  just  like  another  with  which 
he  is  entirely  familiar,  and  if  the  machine  or 
situation  cuts  a  strange  caper  and  fails  to  fol- 
low along  the  line  of  his  subconscious  chain  of 

no 


THE  STUBBORN  MIND 

thought,  with  the  result  that  he  gets  hurt,  who 
is  to  blame  ? 

The  implicit  sources  of  accident  in  non- 
standard factory  conditions  are  sufficiently 
numerous  to  warrant  a  special  survey  by  the 
safety  committee  with  a  view  to  bringing  all 
equipment,  all  safety  devices,  all  comparable 
spacings,  to  a  common  standard. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

Habit  and  skill.  A  good  bowler  usually  rolls 
the  ball  somewhat  diagonally  from  one  corner 
of  the  alley,  instead  of  straight  down  the  center 
to  the  forward  pin.  His  eye  would  counsel  the 
latter  course,  but  his  arm  demands  an  adapta- 
tion. A  crack  rifle  shot  must  allow  for  several 
accommodations  between  his  eye  and  the  laws 
of  physics.  He  calculates  the  upward  kick  of 
the  gun,  the  fall  of  the  projectile  in  the  time  it 
speeds  to  the  target,  and  the  deflecting  force  of 
the  wind.  If  he  aim  at  a  moving  target,  he 
must  also  estimate  the  travel  of  the  target 
during  the  time  of  the  shot. 

The  good  musician,  reading  from  notes  while 
he  plays  the  piano,  goes  one  step  farther  in  re- 
moving his  actions  from  conscious  visual  con- 
trol. He  takes  his  mind  off  his  fingers  alto- 
gether. With  lightning-like  rapidity  he  moves 
both  hands  at  the  same  time  up  and  down  the 
keyboard.    He  strikes  keys  of  different  width 

112 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

and  level  —  the  black  and  the  white  —  each 
less  than  an  inch  in  width.  Sometimes  he  takes 
them  in  bunches  of  four  and  five  at  a  time.  To 
form  chords  accurately  he  has  to  space  his 
fingers  into  proper  position  on  the  way  down  — 
because  there  will  be  no  time  to  do  so  after 
reaching  the  keys.  Yet,  all  the  while,  he  is 
forgetting  fingers,  and  fixing  his  eyes  on  queer 
little  black  specks  on  paper.  There  is,  of  course, 
a  definite  relationship  between  these  marks  and 
the  movements  he  makes,  but  it  is  not  a  direct 
relationship.  It  is  an  arbitrary,  built-up  asso- 
ciation, and  it  is  successfully  established  just 
in  proportion  as  conscious  normal  guidance  of 
the  fingers  by  the  eye  is  got  away  from  and 
just  in  proportion  as  the  movements  become 
unconscious  —  reflex,  as  we  say. 

In  all  three  of  these  cases  —  and  they  are 
merely  typical  —  skill  is  built  up  by  a  process 
of  putting  the  conscious  mind  out  of  business. 
Just  as  good  servants  require  the  mistress  to 
stay  out  of  the  kitchen  while  the  dinner  is  pre- 
paring, so  our  own  bodily  oflftces  are  most  eflft- 
ciently  performed  when  the  will  is  least  engaged 
in  directing  them.  The  unconscious  centers  do 

113 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

the  real  work.  The  mind  is  a  vast  library,  of 
which  conscious  thought  is  but  a  meager  part  — 
merely  the  page  of  the  book  that  for  the  mo- 
ment lies  open.  Conscious  control  of  activity 
is  clumsy,  slow,  and  unpredictable.  It  is  quite 
as  experimental  as  a  monkey's  fooling  with  a 
toy.  Your  novice  on  roller  skates,  your  country 
boy  learning  to  fox-trot,  or  any  person  trying 
to  write  his  name  backward  —  what  ludicrous 
efforts  they  make !  And  yet,  quite  evidently,  a 
person  throws  a  degree  of  conscious  energy  into 
such  efforts  which  is  far  more  laborious  and  un- 
stinted than  that  employed  by  the  most  skilled 
performer.  The  latter's  confidence  in  his  work 
lies  in  the  fact  that  he  "does  n't  have  to  think 
about  it."  A  good  bodily  habit  is,  therefore, 
more  "intelligent"  than  the  best  thought  we 
can  summon. 

But  it  is,  alas,  true  that  a  habit  of  ineffective 
action  can  be  just  as  authoritative  as  a  good 
habit  can  be.  The  bowler  who  cultivates  a 
wrong  twist  of  the  wrist,  the  rifle  shot  who 
habitually  hurries  his  aim  —  or,  worse,  lags 
behind  it  —  may  never  learn  to  be  an  expert. 
The  musician,  who,  in  practice,  several  times 

114 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

strikes  the  wrong  chord  at  a  given  point,  may 
always  torture  his  sensitive  ear  with  the  same 
error  at  the  same  point. 

And  we  should  note  the  fact  that  in  these 
cases  there  is  a  keen  desire  to  be  efficient. 
These  practiced  people  may  strive  to  be  ac- 
curate and  still  in  given  details  they  may  always 
fail.  If  bad  habits  have  become  entwined  with 
automatic  performance,  they  may  not  be  dis- 
entangled without  going  again  through  the 
learning  process.  Bad  habits  can  thus  spring 
up  in  the  very  teeth  of  good  discipline,  like 
sandbars  in  a  river  channel.  What,  then,  may 
the  tendency  not  be  in  the  formation  of  the 
work  habits  of  men  who  have  no  such  keen  in- 
terest in  their  accomplishments  ?  When  there  is 
no  conscious  or  intelligent  aim  in  the  direction 
of  activities  during  the  period  of  learning,  will 
not  habits  simply  form  of  themselves  and  turn 
out  as  bad  habits,  usually,  or,  if  good,  merely 
so  by  chance  ? 

Among  people  who  do  the  burdensome  and 
pointless  labor  in  a  factory —  such  as  "move- 
material  "  men  —  there  is  usually  little  tend- 
ency to  think  well,  and  no  incentive  to  work 

115 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

well.  When  their  activity  involves  the  safety 
of  fellow  employees,  therefore,  they  are  quite 
likely  to  cause  accidents  as  the  result  of  their 
faulty  habits. 

Habitual  carelessness  in  piling  material, 
carelessness  in  placing  ladders  or  securing  scaf- 
folds, carelessness  in  guiding  trucks  and  carry- 
ing dangerous  materials,  such  as  molten  metals, 
acids,  and  the  like,  while  they  may  be  termed 
habits  in  the  physical  sense,  are  really  mental 
habits.  They  spring  from  a  faultily  acquired 
coordination  of  mind  and  muscle. 

We  have  already,  in  the  first  chapter,  had  oc- 
casion to  speak  of  hurry  as  a  bad  habit.  Inas- 
much as  it  is  only  an  attitude  of  mind,  and  is 
not  in  itself,  specifically,  a  particular  method 
of  performance,  such  as  cleaning  moving  ma- 
chinery, or  working  on  insecurely  fastened 
scaffolds,  it  cannot  be  considered  fully  here. 
Yet  it  should  be  noted  that  hurry  can  become 
a  habit  which  persists  after  all  emotional  ex- 
citement has  disappeared  and  there  is  no 
further  apparent  reason  for  hurry.  And  it  is 
evident,  also,  that  the  best  offset  to  hurry,  the 
best  safeguard  foi  nervous  temperaments  who 

ii6 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

have  a  tendency  to  hurry,  is  the  formation  of 
deliberate  habits.   The  disposition  to  hurry  is 
Hkely  to  show  up  most  obviously  in  the  anxious 
period  of  learning,  and  it  is  thus  the  chief  cause 
of  forming  other  bad  habits.    A  hurried  per- 
formance is  a  poor  performance,  with  neces- 
sary steps  omitted,  or  motions  made  out  of 
time  or  out  of  order;  and  bad  performances 
repeated  during  the  learning  period  tend  to 
become  the  accustomed  method  of  work.  Thus 
it  often  happens  that  a  very  eager  person, 
anxious  to  acquire  skill  and  proficiency,  gives 
the  appearance  of  learning  quickly,  and  does, 
indeed,  quickly  acquire  a  certain  speed,  and 
then  beyond  that  point  sticks  at  a  halfway 
period  of  haphazard,  awkward  performance, 
never  acquiring  expertness  and  smooth  pro- 
ficiency. His  rate  of  output  is  variable.   Some- 
times, when  he  is  "feeling  right"  and  gives  his 
conscious  attention  to  his  work,  he  runs  up  a 
good  string  of  production.   At  other  times  he 
turns  out  a  small  output  of  poor  work.    His 
habits   are   not   dependable,   because   formed 
under  the  stress  and  hurry  of  anxiety.   He  al- 
ways requires  a  little  of  the  excitement  of  the 

117 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

learning  period  in  order  to  do  even  his  best 
work.  His  habits  not  having  been  formed  in 
calm  dehberation,  he  cannot  in  calmness  work 
by  habit.  If  he  lacks  the  stimulus  to  give  at- 
tention to  his  job  which  he  felt  when  learning  it, 
he  must  fall  back  on  the  irregular  habits  of 
performance  which  he  acquired  as  the  result  of 
hurry.  The  preventive  for  the  faulty  habits 
formed  by  hurry  is  rigorous  supervision  of  the 
learning  process.  Proper  care  in  learning  new 
operations  and  proper  attention  to  routine 
ones  will  firmly  establish  those  habits  of  accu- 
racy and  precision  which  are  so  closely  identi- 
fied with  safety,  with  quality  production  — 
even  with  speed.  Indeed,  the  biggest  word  in 
factory  management  is  habit. 

Habit  is  the  key  to  efficient  work.  Frank 
Gilbreth,  by  a  study  of  workmen's  movements, 
brought  to  light  the  fact  that  few  workmen, 
even  few  efl[icient  ones,  habitually  perform 
operations  in  the  most  productive  way.  But  he 
showed  that,  where  he  was  able  to  establish 
exact  habits  of  movements,  very  great  speed 
and  accuracy  could  be  obtained.  He  pointed 
out  the  value  of  motion  study  as  a  basis  for 

Ii8 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

standardization  on  movements  of  least  waste, 
and  he  has  lately  developed  very  special  uses  of 
motion  pictures,  even  stereoscopic  motion  pic- 
tures, as  a  means  of  analyzing  motions.  With  a 
photographic  record  of  thousands  of  skilled 
performances,  he  is  able  to  study,  at  leisure, 
movements  too  swift  for  the  eye  itself  to  follow. 
By  piecing  together  the  most  economical  mo- 
tions for  every  part  of  a  task,  he  is  able  to  set  a 
standard  better  than  any  single,  voluntary  per- 
formance, but  just  as  feasible  as  any.  This 
may  be  imparted  to  learners,  and  thus  they  may, 
ultimately,  outstrip  the  workers  on  whom  the 
observations  were  taken. 

Habit  makes  work  easy  in  plant  housekeep- 
ing. The  old  adage,  "a  place  for  everything 
and  everything  in  its  place,"  applies  to  stores- 
keeping  in  the  factory.  Storeroom  classifica- 
tion and  proper  routine  for  stores  issues  is  a 
method  of  relying  upon  habit  to  do  quickly  and 
with  certainty,  without  having  to  think,  what 
otherwise  happens  more  clumsily  by  deliberate 
consideration.  When  items  are  stored  by  whim 
and  issued  on  the  hunt-and-find  principle,  the 
process  may,  indeed,  call  the  mind  fully  into 

119 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

play.  But  a  good  system  turns  the  job  over  to 
painless  habit. 

Indoctrination  and  morale.  Habit  is  so  efficient 
when  rightly  directed,  and  so  easily  takes  the 
place  of  thinking,  that  good  habits,  if  success- 
fully inculcated,  can  eradicate  faulty  thinking. 
They  may  be  marshaled  against  the  wrong 
persuasions,  of  which  I  spoke  before.  The  dare- 
devil spirit,  the  fear  of  doctors,  the  stubborn 
resistance  to  suggestions  by  employers,  or  the 
fear  of  asking  questions  —  all  of  them  may  be 
displaced,  in  the  course  of  time,  by  new  habits 
of  thought.  We  have  long  been  familiar  with 
the  idea  that  good  habits  of  performance  may 
be  cultivated.  We  are  not  so  aware  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  dealing  with  mental  attitudes  by 
changing  habits  of  thought.  Yet,  within  limits, 
a  coward  may  be  taught  to  perform  brave  deeds, 
a  timid  person  to  assume  the  manner  of  the 
bold,  a  selfish  person  to  act  with  consideration, 
and  a  reckless  person  to  behave  circumspectly. 

Professor  William  James,  in  a  brilliant  little 
essay  on  "The  Gospel  of  Relaxation,"  counseled 
how  to  escape  from  the  sway  of  the  emotions. 

1 20 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

He  pointed  out  that,  while  we  cannot  con- 
trol a  feeling  itself  directly,  we  can  control  the 
outward  expressions  of  it.  And,  he  asserted, 
in  the  course  of  time  the  habitual  expression 
reacts  upon  and  controls  the  emotion.  It  is 
almost  true,  he  said,  that  we  are  afraid  because 
we  run  away,  that  we  are  happy  because  we 
laugh,  that  we  are  sad  because  we  cry  — 
rather  than  vice  versa.  He  would  probably  have 
agreed  to  add  that  we  begin  to  think  safety 
by  acting  safely,  and  even  our  opinions  about 
self-preservation  are  colored  in  the  course  of 
time  by  our  actions  about  safety.  The  reckless 
driver,  compelled  by  fear  of  the  law  to  drive 
carefully,  may  develop  caution,  even  when  not 
under  supervision.  The  only  proper  way  of 
getting  people  to  trust  the  medical  department 
is  to  get  them  accustomed  to  doing  so.  The 
Salvation  Army  asks  its  penitents  to  kneel  and 
pray.  If  they  reply  that  they  would  like  to, 
but  cannot  believe  in  the  power  of  prayer,  it 
asks  them  to  pray  for  belief.  When  they  do, 
belief  often  comes.  Alexander  Pope  understood 
the  power  that  action  has  in  forming  the  judg- 
ment when  he  said  that  — 

121 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

**Vice  is  a  monster  of  so  frightful  mien 
As  to  be  hated  needs  only  to  be  seen; 
But  seen  too  oft,  familiar  with  her  face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace." 

The  promotion  of  right  habits  in  a  whole 
group  of  men  cannot  be  successfully  left 
wholly  to  the  men  themselves.  Most  of  them 
lack  the  power "  of  voluntary  self-discipline. 
Many  of  them  have  positive  predispositions 
to  contrary  habits.  The  good-habits  pro- 
gramme needs  their  assent,  of  course;  but  it 
requires  also  a  ceaseless  vigilance  of  supervi- 
sion. A  heading-up  of  authority,  a  definite 
policy  and  theory  of  results,  and  a  clearly 
understood  administration  for  a  definite  pur- 
pose are  required. 

The  process  of  inculcating  right  habits  of 
thought  and  action  in  the  army  or  the  navy  is 
known  as  "indoctrination."  The  result  is 
known  as  "morale."  The  human  subject- 
matter  involved  is  less  important  than  the 
process,  in  securing  the  results.  There  is  less 
difference  between  men  than  between  types 
of  discipline.  With  a  body  of  men  selected 
at  random,  the  military  command  sets  out  to 

122 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

produce  a  close-knit  unit  which  will  behave  in 
a  predictable  way  under  fire.  At  a  time  when 
fear,  confusion,  and  excitement  would  tend  to 
scatter  the  consciousness  and  remove  the  con- 
trol of  intelligence  hopelessly,  the  soldier  or 
seaman  must  find  ready-made  courage  and  de- 
cision. The  method  of  arriving  at  this  result  is 
practice  in  a  routine  of  thought  and  a  routine 
of  acting  from  which  no  deviation  is  permitted 
at  any  time.  Long  use  in  time  of  training  per- 
mits easy  repetition  in  time  of  excitement. 
Automatic  conduct  in  battle  is  induced  by  auto- 
matic drill  during  training  —  moving  in  pre- 
scribed evolutions  with  a  prescribed  step,  car- 
riage, equipment,  and  manual  of  arms.  The 
contagion  of  example  is  assured  by  marching 
men  in  fixed,  regular  ranks,  which  step  out  in 
unison,  and  shape  their  evolutions  to  general 
commands.  Respect  for  authority  is  ingrained 
as  a  habit  by  means  of  the  salute,  the  manner 
of  standing  at  attention,  the  prescribed,  re- 
spectful response  to  questions,  and  the  severe 
penalties  for  breaches  of  discipline.  The  war- 
like temper,  even,  is  heightened  by  practice 
with  bayonets,  including  the  stabbing  of  dum- 

123 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

mies  to  the  accompaniment  of  warlike  cries; 
by  quick-time  drills,  by  ceremonies  with  the 
flag  and  by  the  use  of  bands,  fife  and  drum 
corps,  etc.  So  rigidly  is  this  routine  main- 
tained, indeed,  that  it  is  as  much  of  a  military 
offense  for  an  officer  to  permit  a  breach  of 
discipline  as  for  a  soldier  to  commit  it. 

Sometimes  the  military  regime  is  too  severe. 
Many  finely  constituted  men  break  down  un- 
der the  strain  of  it,  suffering  more  from  the 
discipline  than  from  the  battle  for  which  it  is 
designed  to  prepare  them.  And  so  rigorous  a 
training  for  any  ordeal  less  terrible  than  battle 
is  not  to  be  thought  of  for  a  moment.  But  that 
such  training  succeeds  in  its  main  purpose, 
with  the  majority  of  men,  no  one  can  doubt 
who  has  seen  the  great  and  rapid  development 
of  draft  armies  during  the  recent  war.  And  it 
seems  clear  that  some  psychological  principles 
can  be  drawn  from  the  theory  of  habit-forma- 
tion and  development  of  morale  in  the  army, 
which  could  be  usefully  employed  even  in  the 
most  democratic  industry. 

The  fact  that  the  human  material  involved 
is  less  important  than  the  method  of  training 

124 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

has  been  clearly  demonstrated  in  the  military 
history  of  our  own  country.  Untrained  armies 
have  been  defeated  in  every  engagement  in 
which  they  have  been  relied  upon.  Where  we 
have  won,  the  glory  of  American  arms  has  been 
upheld  solely  by  meager  groups  of  regulars  or 
other  well-drilled  troops.  General  Emery  Up- 
ton's "Military  Policy  of  the  United  States" 
reveals  some  unpalatable  facts  about  our  battle 
records  in  the  various  wars  up  to  and  including 
the  Civil  War.  In  the  Revolution  we  used 
twenty  men  to  every  one  the  British  sent 
against  us.  There  were  only  two  battles  which 
had  any  effect  in  driving  the  British  from  the 
country.  At  the  battle  of  Stillwater,  where  we 
captured  Burgoyne  with  5791  men,  we  out- 
numbered the  British  2^  or  3  to  i.  At  York- 
town,  we  had  i6,ocxd  men,  including  4000 
French  veterans,  against  7000  British.  But  at 
the  battle  of  White  Plains,  New  York,  and  in 
the  surrender  of  5000  men  at  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  and  in  other  engagements 
where  we  relied  upon  raw  militia,  we  were  de- 
feated by  smaller  forces  of  British  regulars. 
During  the  war  of  181 2,  the  fort  at  Detroit 

125 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

with  1800  men  was  surrendered  to  1320  British 
regulars  without  our  firing  a  shot.  Four  thou- 
sand mountaineer  volunteers,  sent  to  retrieve 
the  disaster,  actually  fled  at  the  sight  of  a 
prairie  fire  and  never  reassembled.  In  all  the 
war  of  181 2  we  used  32  men  to  every  one  sent 
against  us.  We  achieved  only  a  single  victory 
on  land  before  the  treaty  of  peace. 

The  reason  for  these  discouraging  figures  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  our  defeats  were  sus- 
tained by  men  who,  individually,  perhaps,  were 
all  that  we  like  to  boast  them  to  be,  but  who, 
collectively  as  an  army,  were  entirely  untrained 
and  undisciplined.  In  the  Mexican  War,  on 
the  other  hand,  when  we  did  have  trained  offi- 
cers and  trained  armies,  small  outfits  were 
able  to  administer  staggering  defeats  to  greatly 
superior  forces  of  the  enemy.  In  the  one  case, 
the  men  had  developed  no  morale;  in  the  sec- 
ond, they  were  indoctrinated  with  an  habitual 
mode  of  action,  and  proved  themselves  reliable 
and  efficient. 

Morale  is  united  action  to  a  useful  end,  under 
single  direction.  Factory  management  has,  in 
general,  never  appreciated  the  value  of  culti- 

126 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

vating  morale.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
management  hesitates  resolutely  to  build  up 
discipline.  The  error  is  usually  made  of  think- 
ing that  factory  discipline,  of  the  degree  of 
completeness  indicated,  would  require  a  mili- 
tary authority  at  which  workmen  would  rebel, 
and  which  they  are  under  no  compulsion  to 
accept.  This  is  an  erroneous  impression.  It  is 
possible  to  secure  "united  action  to  a  useful 
end,  under  a  single  direction,"  by  voluntary 
assent  and  by  democratic  decision.  I  admit 
that,  in  the  factory,  this  is  the  only  way  in 
which  such  discipline  can  be  got.  But  the 
determination  and  initiative  must  be  furnished 
by  a  resolute  management. 

Despairing  of  securing  discipline  by  military 
methods,  industry  has  ended  with  having  no 
discipline  whatever.  It  is  true  that,  in  the 
minor  matter  of  enforcing  a  decent  outward 
respect  for  the  dignity  of  the  boss,  management 
will  fire  a  workman  instantly.  In  the  more  im- 
portant matters,  however,  relating  to  manner 
of  performing  work,  acceptance  of  safety  prin- 
ciples, cleanliness,  and  economy,  discipline  is 
less  frequently  enforced.   Workmen  are  hired 

127 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

in  the  presumption  that  somewhere  they  have 
been  thoroughly  trained,  and  so  are  left  en- 
tirely to  their  own  devices.  In  most  plants 
they  are  even  denied  the  pleasure  which  comes 
to  them  as  a  result  of  united  action  in  securing 
economy  and  efficiency. 

Resistance  to  efforts  to  form  correct  work 
habits  comes  less  frequently  from  actual  work- 
men than  from  theorists  about  industry.  Pre- 
cisely because  scientific  management,  with  espe- 
cial reference  to  time  and  motion  study,  involves 
careful  training  in  good  habits,  many  social 
workers  oppose  it  on  the  ground  that  it  de- 
prives the  workman  of  initiative.  This  criti- 
cism, however,  fails  to  take  account  of  what  we 
know  about  habits.  It  seems  to  assume  that, 
if  left  to  himself,  a  workman  will  take  conscious 
thought  of  his  action  or  method  of  performing 
work  every  time  he  has  a  task  set  before  him. 
But  a  workman  who  has  to  do  this  cannot  be 
considered  skilled.  As  Myers  ^  says,  "The 
worker,  whether  trained  or  not,  will  ultimately 
fall  into  some  habitual  method  of  procedure." 
Scientific  management  merely  undertakes  to 

^  C.  S.  Myers,  Mind  and  Work. 
128 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

see  that,  in  the  formative  period,  when  habits 
are  making,  the  workmen  have  the  benefit  of 
scientific  study  in  choosing  among  various  pos- 
sible methods  of  performance.  I  wonder  if  the 
critical  social  workers  will  go  so  far  as  to  assert 
that  the  particular  method  which  conserves 
human  energy,  and  enables  workmen  to  earn 
increased  pay  without  increased  efi^ort,  is  a  less 
desirable  and  less  interesting  method  of  per- 
formance than  some  faultier  habit  at  which 
the  worker  would  arrive  by  chance!  I  should 
rather  say  that  the  complaint  of  those  who  love 
men  should  be  that  management  so  seldom  does 
discover  the  methods  of  least  waste  in  perform- 
ing tasks.  The  grievance  is  that  workers  are 
allowed  so  often  to  stagger  unwarned  into  ways 
of  costly  waste  of  effort,  or  into  careless  habits 
that  foster  accident ! 

The  discovery  of  the  best  method  requires  a 
comparison  of  methods  of  doing  work  which  a 
single  workman  has  not  the  opportunity  to  ar- 
range. The  formation  of  correct  habits  involves 
a  degree  of  painstaking  care  which  requires  the 
assistance  of  supervision.  What  Professor  Wil- 
liam James  wrote  in  his  chapter  on  "Habit"  is 

129 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

still  valid.  To  re-read  this  chapter  is  to  be  con- 
vinced anew  that  it  takes  a  great  deal  of 
machinery  to  form  correct  habits.  But  it  also 
reminds  us  that  correct  habits,  once  formed,  are 
not  alone  the  basis  of  skill,  but  also  the  means 
by  which  routine  can  be  handed  over  to  sub- 
ordinate nerve  centers  and  the  mind  set  free  for 
"new  business." 

In  considering  the  question  of  discipline  and 
habits  in  the  factory,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
safety,  it  is  important  to  take  up  the  whole 
question  of  discipline  of  work  habits,  because 
it  would  take  nearly  as  much  organization  and 
supervision  to  cultivate  right  habits  relative  to 
safety  work  as  to  extend  the  theory  to  every 
phase  of  work. 

To  make  sure  that  employees  always  remem- 
ber not  to  stand  or  sit  or  fall  asleep  in  a  danger- 
ous place ;  that  they  always  avoid  repairing  or 
cleaning  moving  parts  of  a  machine  while  it  is 
running;  that  they  always  set  the  guards  or 
locks ;  that  they  always  wear  goggles  or  gloves 
when  necessary;  that  they  always  have  the 
doctor  dress  small  cuts  and  scratches;  in  other 
words,  to  assure  that  the  routine  of  safety  pro- 

130 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

cedure  is  not  left  to  the  judgment  or  conscience 
of  employees,  but  is  handed  over  entirely  to 
habits,  is  a  highly  exacting  programme.  It  re- 
quires a  vigilance  of  supervision  which  very  few 
industries  are  organized  to  give.  Economically 
it  is  hardly  worth  while,  for  the  sake  of  safety 
alone,  to  establish  such  discipline.  Certainly  it 
wofCt  be  done  for  the  sake  of  safety  alone ;  be- 
cause management  is  all  of  a  piece. 

How  to  cultivate  safety  habits.  A  programme 
of  proper  habit-formation  for  safety  in  a  factory 
should  be  based  on  the  following  procedure: 

1.  Determination  of  safe  habits  to  be  incul- 
cated. 

2.  Indoctrination,  on  the  principle  of  the 
"greatest  common  denominator";  i.e.,  the 
use  of  mental  laws  of  the  most  universal 
application. 

3.  Drilling  beginners  in  proper  habits  (not 
merely  Ideas,  but  habits)  of  safety,  as  part 
of  the  process  of  learning  the  operation. 

4.  Building  up  a  check-list  of  habits  to  observe 
in  safety  Inspections,  formanlzing,  etc. 

5.  Constant  inspection,  with  use  of  this  check- 
list. 

6.  Making  opportunities  for  reporting  in- 
stances of  bad  habits. 

131 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

7.  Studying   accidents    that   occur,    to    revise 
check-list  on  safety  habits. 

We  may  profitably  pause  to  consider  these 
steps  briefly. 

While  it  is  not  possible  here  to  set  down  any 
universal  set  of  principles  on  safety  habits,  it  is 
easy  to  point  out  several  that  ought  to  be  in- 
cluded in  almost  every  set  of  rules.  For  in- 
stance : 

Saje  clothing:  Permit  no  one  to  come  near  mov- 
ing machinery  with  flowing  or 
torn  sleeves,  neckties,  or  other 
garments  which  may  "catch." 
Require  women  workers  to  con- 
fine their  hair  with  caps.  Where 
gloves  are  worn  at  hazardous 
work  require  the  fingers  to  be 
cut  out. 

Ladders:  Permit  no  ladder  to  be  set  at  an 

angle  of  less  than  60  degrees. 
Provide  secure  hold  on  floor  by 
points  or  suction  caps,  and  a 
secure  rest  above.  Permit  no 
worker  to  disregard  these  points. 

Hand  tools:  Use  tools  in  the  right  place;  per- 
mit only  certain  tools  to  be  used 
by  certain  men,  permit  only  the 
right  tools  to  be  used,  and  permit 
no  one  to  use  hammers  with 
mushroomed  heads. 

132 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

Similar  and  obvious  rules  can  be  formulated 
for  cleaning  machinery  (tagging  machines  un- 
der repair,  etc.),  walking  on  wet  floors,  keeping 
aisles  clear,  and  using  goggles,  guards,  locks, 
and  other  familiar  safeguards. 

In  the  enforcement  of  such  habits,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  treat  them  as  habits ;  that  is,  as  involun- 
tary acts,  rather  than  as  matters  of  intelligent 
and  deliberate  choice.  The  adoption  of  such 
methods  of  performance  cannot  be  allowed  to 
wait  for  voluntary  action  of  the  workers,  nor 
in  all  cases  even  for  their  complete  understand- 
ing. The  greatest  common  denominator  in 
mental  life  is  unthinking  habit.  It  is  the  only 
thing  which  may  be  reliably  inculcated  in  all 
minds  above  the  grade  of  idiot.  And  the  way 
to  form  habits  is  to  perform.  No  mere  explana- 
tions, but  actions,  do  the  trick.  Explanations, 
indeed,  are  unnecessary  if  the  act  can  only  be 
brought  about  once,  and  then  repeated  often 
enough.  It  need  hardly  be  said,  of  course,  that 
the  more  democracy  a  plant  can  introduce  and 
the  more  discussion  of  such  rules  as  the  above, 
before  adoption,  so  that  full  and  general  con- 
sent may  be  had,  the  easier  it  is  to  inaugurate 

133 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

good  habits.  More  intelligent  men  can  only  be 
handled  that  way.  But  discussion  has  nothing 
to  do  with  forming  the  actual  habit ;  only  action 
can  do  that  —  only  undeviating  performance. 
Moralizing  over  breaches  of  discipline  should 
never  be  allowed  to  supplant  the  steady  appli- 
cation of  good  rules,  the  steady  performance  in 
accordance  with  right  habits. 

Usually,  careless  habits  are  an  evidence  of 
unintelligent  training  or  entire  lack  of  training. 
In  one  sense,  of  course,  they  are  also  an  evi- 
dence of  lack  of  self-discipline,  in  that  they 
reveal  a  lack  of  intelligent  self-schooling  in  the 
right  way  of  working.  It  is  only  the  abnormal 
person,  however,  with  an  almost  irritating  pas- 
sion for  neatness  and  care,  who  voluntarily 
trains  himself  to  work  always  correctly,  in  a 
precise  manner.  Early  education  may  occasion- 
ally inculcate  a  mental  set  in  favor  of  care  in 
all  things,  but  few  persons  have  this  inbred  dis- 
position for  the  conscious  formation  of  right 
habits.  Correct  habits  must,  in  general,  be 
supplied  for  each  type  of  work  undertaken,  as 
the  result  of  conscious  discipline  by  manage- 
ment. The  theory  must  be  that,  first,  all  men 

134 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

work  by  habit  —  good  habits  or  bad  habits; 
second,  that  these  habits  are  formed  in  the 
process  of  learning  or  directed  re-learning; 
third,  that,  except  in  rare  cases,  learners  do  not 
consciously  steer  themselves  in  the  direction 
of  forming  good  habits  —  their  course  is  picked 
out  blindly;  and,  fourth,  that  it  behooves  man- 
agement, therefore,  to  assume  charge  of  the 
process  of  learning,  and  to  choose  for  beginners 
those  motions  and  methods  of  work  which, 
when  later  followed  habitually,  will  keep  them 
safe  and  make  them  successful.  This  means,  in 
work,  the  development  of  something  akin  to 
"form"  in  golf  or  tennis  —  a  certain  way  to 
stand  or  swing  to  give  the  freest  and  most  com- 
fortable play,  to  secure  greatest  stability  or 
quickest  response,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  to 
conform  to  the  laws  of  physics  in  the  applica- 
tion of  forces.  Not  only  because  habits  are 
more  easily  formed  in  the  process  of  learning, 
but  also  because  at  no  other  time  does  the 
workman  so  consciously  and  willingly  put  him- 
self under  the  guidance  of  management,  in- 
doctrination of  safety  habits  should  be  made  a 
part  of  the  process  of  training  beginners.  If  in 

135 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

any  given  factory  there  is  no  formal  training 
for  new  workers,  or  in  given  cases  such  training 
is  not  considered  necessary,  the  foreman  should 
regard  the  newcomer's  first  few  days  at  work  as 
a  learning  period,  and  give  him,  on  the  job, 
pre-planned  instruction  in  safety  habits. 

It  requires  constant  inspection,  of  course,  to 
maintain  correct  performance.  Just  as  a  boxer 
needs  a  sparring  partner,  or  a  practiced  actor 
needs  repeated  drill  in  elocution,  so  executives 
need  repeated  stimulus  to  perform  their  duties 
fully.  A  system  of  safety  inspection  is  indis- 
pensable, and  it  should  have  regard  not  only 
to  mechanical  features,  but  also  to  performance 
habits.  For  this  purpose  a  check-list  covering 
all  the  points  in  the  rules  for  safety  habits,  and 
a  few  others,  should  be  used  to  guide  the  audit. 

Supplementing  the  inspection  by  safety  com- 
mittees, or  safety  engineers,  or  even  outside 
consultants,  there  should  be  a  system  for  re- 
porting laxity  of  habits.  A  set  place  in  the  order 
of  business  in  foremen's  meetings,  shop  commit- 
tee meetings,  and  the  like  should  be  reserved 
for  reporting  breaches  of  these  rules  of  safety. 

Finally,  the  accident  itself,  when  it  does  hap- 
136 


THE  INVOLUNTARY  MIND 

pen,  should  be  used  to  instruct  all  hands  in  all 
its  various  aspects.  And  one  of  the  several 
things  to  ask  about  an  accident  is,  Would  a 
good  work  habit,  not  yet  formed,  have  pre- 
vented this  occurrence  ? 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

Habit  and  attention  in  relation  to  safety.  The 
ideal  mental  state  for  performing  routine  work 
safely  is  not  easy  to  picture,  for  there  are  ele- 
ments in  it  which  seem  to  be  at  variance  with 
each  other.  As  we  saw  in  the  last  chapter, 
repetitive  work  is  most  skillfully  performed 
when  all  motions  are  strictly  habitual.  This 
seems  to  mean  that  attention  may  be  entirely 
withdrawn,  and  is,  indeed,  better  withdrawn, 
from  the  work.  We  saw,  too,  that  habits  of 
safety  can  be  linked  up  with  habits  of  perform- 
ance. Yet  many  safety  engineers  will  tell  us 
that  work  can  become  too  familiar,  that  over- 
confidence  breeds  lack  of  caution,  so  that  acci- 
dents may  result.  I  have  even  seen  working  by 
habit  listed  as  one  cause  of  accidents. 

It  is  possible,  however,  to  effect  a  reconcilia- 
tion of  these  ideas.  The  confusion  really  results 
from  failure  sometimes  to  perceive  that  there 
is  more  in  a  job  than  the  method  of  performing 

138 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

it.  There  are  always  at  least  three  mental 
phases  to  any  performance  of  any  task. 

There  is,  first,  the  standard,  permanent, 
habitual,  or  method,  phase,  which  should  be 
strictly  automatic.  There  may  sometimes  be 
alternative  methods,  or  even  numerous  vari- 
ants for  each  element  of  performance,  which  are 
chosen  almost  without  conscious  efforts  in 
response  to  slight  variations  in  the  job;  but 
each  variant  should,  in  itself,  be  automatic. 

There  is,  second,  the  non-standard,  imme- 
diate, relational,  infinitely  individual  phase  — 
the  something  peculiar  to  the  moment  — 
which  makes  each  separate  performance  of  any 
routine  task  different  from  every  other  per- 
formance of  it.  Even  if  carried  through  a 
million  times,  no  two  performances  will  occur 
in  exactly  the  same  way.  The  operative,  him- 
self, not  only  grows  older  by  the  minute,  but  he 
alters  his  mental  and  physical  state  constantly. 
The  atmospheric  conditions,  the  illumination, 
and  the  conditions  of  the  machine,  of  the  tool, 
of  the  material  and  of  the  power,  vary  through 
an  immense  range  of  possible  gradations.  The 
accompanying  circumstances,  not  necessarily 

139 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

always  but  usually  vitally  related  to  the  given 
performance,  occur  but  once  and  change  in- 
stantly, never  to  reappear  again  in  just  the 
same  combination.  Even  the  seemingly  auto- 
matic phases  of  a  job  are  shot  through  with  the 
unexpected  or  with  the  necessity  of  choice. 
The  time  to  start  the  performance  must  be 
deliberately  selected;  often  the  time  to  stop  it 
or  interrupt  it  in  response  to  trouble  or  dan- 
ger must  be  fixed  by  conscious  decision  of  the 
operative.  Breaks  in  the  machine  or  the  work, 
or  defects  in  the  tools  or  materials,  must  be 
watched  for  and  appropriate  action  taken. 

Finally,  the  third  phase  of  performance  is  the 
value,  or  meaning,  or  interest  phase,  which 
often  changes  from  time  to  time,  and  always 
varies  according  to  who  is  performing  the  task. 
The  performance  has  a  meaning,  intellectually, 
according  to  how  it  fits  into  the  general  scheme 
of  things  —  whether  it  is  useful  or  harmful, 
necessary  or  trivial ;  and  above  all,  according  to 
how  much  of  its  relations  are  understood  by  the 
operative.  It  has  a  value,  emotionally,  accord- 
ing to  what  desires  or  instincts  of  workmanship 
it  gives  play  to,  and  how  much  of  the  work- 

140 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

man's  own  will  and  initiative  have  been  en- 
gaged in  the  decision  to  perform  the  task  at  all, 
or  in  these  circumstances.  It  has  a  value,  so- 
cially, according  to  the  esteem  in  which  it  is 
held  by  others,  or  the  amount  of  present  atten- 
tion it  is  receiving  from  executives  and  fellow 
workers.  It  has  a  value,  physically,  according 
to  the  effect  on  the  health  and  sense  of  well- 
being  of  the  performer.  And  it  has  a  value, 
economically,  according  to  whether  the  pay  for 
performing  this  task  is  going  to  give  the  worker 
the  thing  he  considers  necessary  to  his  existence 
and  his  happiness. 

All  three  of  these  aspects  of  task  performance 
—  the  standard  phase,  the  immediate  phase, 
and  the  value  phase  —  have  different  influences 
upon  the  operative's  attention,  and  different 
meanings,  therefore,  to  the  safety  engineer. 
Clearly  enough,  the  second  phase,  the  non- 
standard, immediate,  never-to-be-repeated  as- 
pects of  performance  make  a  definite  call 
upon  the  attention.  The  uncertainties  may  be 
ever  so  slight,  the  dangers  ever  so  remote,  and 
the  chance  of  exciting  incident  and  change 
only  too  slim,  but  there  is  always  the  possibility 

141 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

of  some  important  thing  happening.  The 
mind  must  be  ready  to  deal  with  it  when  it 
comes.  Indeed,  if  the  mind  is  7iot  ready,  the 
important  thing  may  be  a  serious  accident,  due 
to  the  failure  to  respond  to  a  slight  demand 
upon  the  attention.  Any  performance  of  an} 
task,  then,  because  it  is  always  related  to  thc 
exquisite  unexpectedness  of  life,  requires  some 
conscious  attention.  Now,  it  is  at  the  same  time 
true  that,  just  in  proportion  as  any  given  per- 
formance resembles  those  which  have  gone  be- 
fore it,  the  worker's  action  should  be  automatic. 
The  mind  can  consciously  attend  to  only  one 
idea  at  a  time,  and  any  focusing  of  the  powers 
upon  the  manner  of  doing  the  job  necessarily 
withdraws  them  from  the  reserves  to  the  active 
engagement.  Attention  must  be  devoted  to 
either  one  phase  or  another,  either  to  the 
method  of  doing  work,  or  to  the  present  situa- 
tion with  regard  to  it.  Good  habits,  therefore, 
by  releasing  attention  for  the  unexpected  devel- 
opments, are  aids  to  safety. 

What  safety  engineers  have  in  mind  when 
they  say  that  a  worker  can  be  so  familiar  with 
a  job  that  overconfidence  leads  him  into  danger- 

142 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

ous  practices  is  that  he  is  bored  because  some- 
thing is  really  wrong  with  the  third  —  the 
value  —  phase  of  the  performance.  Many 
things  are  likely  to  be  wrong  with  this  aspect  of 
a  factory  job.  It  may  not  pay  enough,  or  it  may 
not  have  been  made  to  seem  important  to  the 
worker,  or  it  may  be  injuring  his  health,  or 
thwarting  some  fine  instinct  or  desire.  So  long 
as  the  job  is  fairly  new,  the  mere  interest  of  ex- 
ploring its  meanings  or  overcoming  such  diffi- 
culties as  it  presents  may  give  it  a  value  which 
holds  the  attention  to  the  two  primary  phases 
of  performance.  Repetition  dulls  and  finally 
kills  these  temporary  values,  however,  and  un- 
less the  social  or  economic  or  other  personal 
values  remain  (as  they  may  remain,  perma- 
nently), all  interest  goes  out  of  the  job.  The 
stupidly  familiar  task  cannot  hold  the  atten- 
tion. The  distasteful  job  sends  the  mind  fleet- 
ing to  other  fields,  because  attention  is  inextri- 
cably linked  up  with  either  positive  interests  — 
curiosity  and  pleasure;  or  with  negative  in- 
terests—  fear  and  pain.  It  cannot  be  held  to 
any  unpleasant  thing  which  it  can  escape.  The 
most  dangerous  mental  situation,  therefore,  at- 

143 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

taches  to  a  job  with  which  the  operative  is 
thoroughly  familiar,  in  its  automatic  phase,  but 
relative  to  which  he  is  thoroughly  l^winterested 
by  its  value  phase,  and  which,  in  its  immediate 
phase,  permits  him  to  be  easily  distracted  by 
confusion  or  worry  in  the  attendant  situation. 
The  uninstructed  learner  is  safer  than  such  a 
worker,  because  the  former's  lack  of  automatic 
skill  compels  him  —  whether  the  job  offers 
other  elements  of  interest  and  value  or  not  — 
to  give  attention  to  the  immediate  phase,  of 
which  his  learning  the  process  is,  for  the  pres- 
ent, a  part.  But  the  most  favorable  situation 
for  safety  is  the  one  where  the  operative  is 
skilled  in  the  standard  movements,  and  yet 
held  by  an  intense  interest  in  the  several  value 
aspects  of  the  job  to  give  close  heed  to  the  im- 
mediate aspects  of  the  given  performance. 

The  safety  engineer's  task  in  dealing  with 
the  related  problems  of  attention  and  habit, 
therefore,  seems  to  me  to  be  fourfold: 

1.  To  inculcate  safety  habits. 

2.  To  assist  in  establishing  correct  performance 
habits,  or  automaticity. 

3.  To  help  to  build  up  the  value  aspect  of  the 
job  by  building  up  positive  interest  in  it. 

144 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

4.  To  minimize  competing  interests,  distrac- 
tions, confusions,  needless  difficulties  and 
worries. 

Perhaps  It  Is  unnecessary  to  point  out  that 
the  value  aspect  of  any  performance  is  largely 
a  subjective  matter  with  the  performer.  The 
mere  doing  of  a  task  may  so  gratify  one  work- 
er's instincts  that  any  other  value  is  superflu- 
ous, and  another  may  find  the  doing  of  the 
task,  or  the  continued  repetition  of  it,  so  dis- 
agreeable, that  no  other  value  can  compensate. 
"One  man's  meat  Is  another's  poison."  Before 
attempting,  therefore,  to  do  anything  to  give 
new  value  to  jobs,  the  management  should  see 
to  it,  first,  that  men  have  been  selected  for  those 
jobs  who  are  likely  to  find  them  interesting. 
Nervous,  high-strung  men  should  not  be  kept 
on  repetitive  tasks,  nor  phlegmatic  men  put  on 
jobs  which  constantly  change.  Men  of  poor 
ability  should  not  be  worried  by  assignments 
beyond  their  capacity  for  self-satisfying  per- 
formance, and  superior  workers  should  not  be 
confined  to  mediocre  efforts.  These  things  are, 
in  themselves,  well  recognized.  It  needs  to  be 
somewhat  emphasized,  however,  that  they  also 

145 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

have  an  indirect  bearing  upon  safety,  through 
their  influence  upon  the  attention. 

Boredom  and  values  in  relation  to  factory 
routine.  In  the  minds  of  most  people,  monotony 
is  associated  with  boredom.  As  they  cast  their 
eye  over  the  field  of  industry  and  observe 
how  large  a  percentage  of  the  work  is  routine, 
repetitive,  and  trivial,  critics  of  the  modern 
order  cry  out  against  the  monotony  of  such 
labor.  They  envision  the  state  of  mind  of  the 
workers  as  a  mood  of  depression  and  intense 
boredom. 

The  situation,  fortunately,  is  not  so  bad  as  it 
appears.  The  majority  of  workers  find  satis- 
factions in  their  jobs  which  observers  cannot 
readily  see.  The  majority  of  unskilled  opera- 
tives are  people  of  meager  ability,  unfitted  to 
deal  with  complex  situations.  They  have  come 
to  the  jobs  by  a  process  of  natural  selection  and 
experience  whicti  has  shown  them  the  field  for 
which  they  are  fitted  to  make  good.  Usually 
the  routine  job  offers  as  much  excitement  and 
variety  as  they  are  capable  of  dealing  with 
comfortably. 

146 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  boredom  can 
affect  attention  to  the  job: 

Either  (i)  by  the  workman's  having  no  in- 
terests whatever  which  the  job  can  serve  di- 
rectly or  indirectly; 

Or  (2)  by  the  workman's  having  intense  and 
lively  interests  in  activities  which  compete  with 
the  job.  If  he  likes  another  kind  of  work  better, 
or  if  he  cannot  wait  through  the  working  day 
to  get  to  his  play,  he  is  bound  to  be  bored  with 
his  job. 

The  average  worker,  however,  is  not  really 
bored.  He  is  reasonably  contented  so  long  as 
he  has  "good  running  work."  He  falls  some- 
where between  the  two  types  of  men  mentioned 
above.  He  is  not  so  stupid  and  dull  as  to  have 
no  interests,  nor  is  he  so  eager  for  life  as  to  have 
many  competing  interests.  He  has  rather  a 
mild,  routine  attitude  toward  life,  which  ac- 
cepts with  gratitude  the  ordinary  unfolding  of 
home  life  and  of  work,  and  fears  only  the  un- 
expected. 

The  average  man  of  settled  habits  is,  from 
one  point  of  view,  a  cheerfully  defeated  man. 
Originally,  he  had  a  boastful,  gleeful,  hopeful 

147 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

attitude  toward  himself,  and  an  easy  contempt 
for  the  world.  He  expected  always  to  make 
good  money,  to  enjoy  enviable  good  health,  and 
to  maintain  before  other  men  the  reputation  for 
being  a  good  drinker,  a  heavy  smoker,  and  a 
success  with  women.  A  few  years'  battle  with 
life,  however,  usually  brings  a  man  to  a  vastly 
different  frame  of  mind.  His  manner  of  living 
in  his  youth  has  cooled  his  vigorous  ardor,  even 
if  it  has  not  enfeebled  his  health;  his  contact 
with  the  hard  facts  of  industry  —  unemploy- 
ment, among  them  —  has  impaired  his  confi- 
dence in  his  ability  always  to  make  good  money, 
and  substituted  an  ever-present  fear  that  he 
may  suddenly  find  himself  "dead  broke."  His 
family  life  has  not  been  so  much  of  a  personal 
triumph  as  he  had  expected,  and,  instead,  has 
been  the  source  of  many  sorrows,  humiliations, 
and  disappointments.  There  are,  indeed,  few 
objects  upon  which  he  can  turn  his  mind,  to 
derive  therefrom  the  hope,  the  self-esteem,  and 
the  excitement  he  found  so  readily  in  his  youth. 
On  the  other  hand,  while  his  youth  was  hope- 
ful, it  was  often,  in  its  immediate  experiences, 
quite  hard.  There  were  deprivations,  post- 
148 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

ponements,  and  defeats  such  as  he  no  longer  has 
to  fear,  and  such  as,  at  that  time,  it  took  all  his 
egotistic  hopes  to  sweeten.  To-day,  at  least,  if 
he  expects  less  than  he  formerly  expected,  he 
gets  more  than  he  formerly  got.  He  must  be 
content  with  a  less  brilliant  career  than  he  had 
pictured,  but  in  the  end  it  is  likely  to  be  the  one 
that  satisfies  most  of  his  creature  wants,  which 
often  had  to  be  denied  in  his  youth.  The  proc- 
ess of  maturing  has  been  a  process  of  finding 
the  situation,  in  work,  marriage,  etc.,  which, 
on  the  average,  guarantees  him  the  most  per- 
manent and  regular  satisfactions.  The  picture 
has  gradually  changed,  the  hope  gradually 
dwindled,  as  the  permanent  situation  became 
clear,  and  the  worker  saw  that  his  die  was  cast, 
his  lot  chosen  forever.  So  it  comes  about  that, 
instead  of  the  boundless  potentialities  and  un- 
certainties of  his  youth,  life  has  presented  him 
with  an  adjustment.  He  has  had  to  settle  his 
suit  out  of  court,  so  to  speak,  and  take  a  fixed 
sum.  It  isn't  as  much  as  he  had  claimed,  but 
it  is  a  tangible  amount,  in  hand. 

In  this  final  scheme  of  things  the  job  has 
come  to  weigh  very  heavily.   It  is  his  means  of 

149 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

livelihood ;  that  is,  his  guarantee  of  maintaining 
the  adjustment  which  compensates  for  the  loss 
of  his  youth.  He  is  never  able  to  forget  for  a 
moment  its  symbolic  value,  its  meaning  as  the 
key  to  his  daily  existence.  And  if  perchance  he 
is  a  good  workman,  and  the  task  presents  a 
normal  amount  of  difficulties  which  he  is  able  to 
surmount,  the  job  has  a  further  value  in  minis- 
tering to  the  remnants  of  his  egotism  left  over 
from  his  youth.  His  family  life  may  be  going 
like  the  devil,  and  his  appearance  before  his 
fellow  men  somewhat  ludicrous,  but  if  the  job 
itself  furnishes  its  httle  daily  triumph,  there 
is  still  some  hope  for  him,  still  some  pride 
and  manhood.  Let  no  one  too  hastily  assume, 
therefore,  that  the  workman  is  bored  by  his  job. 
If  his  personal  life  is  well  adjusted,  his  job  is 
quite  likely  to  maintain  a  steady  level  of  in- 
terest. 

It  is  easy  to  see,  however,  that  in  the  cases  of 
young  men  who  have  not  yet  found  themselves 
in  life,  or  of  older  men  who  have  failed  to  make 
a  satisfactory  adjustment,  the  average  job  is 
less  likely  to  give  satisfaction.  The  steady  job 
is  for  them  no  key  to  their  happiness,  for  they 

ISO 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

have  not  yet  found  contentment.  In  so  far  as 
it  is  a  mere  "  meal  ticket,"  it  may  become  dis- 
tasteful, as  the  anchor  to  an  existence  which 
has  not  been  made  tolerable. 

In  such  circumstances  boredom  as  a  state  of 
mind  is  inevitable;  the  only  offset  is  an  in- 
creased excitement  and  variety  in  the  work 
itself.  The  job  must  bear  the  additional  strain 
of  compensating  for  the  lack  of  satisfactions  in 
the  life  adjustment.  Either  the  work  must  be 
made,  clearly,  just  a  stepping-stone  to  promo- 
tion and  some  form  of  renown,  or  else  a  direct 
means  of  satisfying  the  manifold  range  of  com- 
pensating instincts.  Artists,  musicians,  actors 
writers,  politicians,  social  workers,  and  organ- 
izers are,  in  a  surprising  number  of  cases,  out  of 
normal  adjustment  to  life,  yet  they  find  happy 
compensations  in  their  work.  Factory  employ- 
ments, however,  do  not  usually  offer  such  satis- 
factions. The  number  of  maladjusted  people 
who  drift  into  industry  through  inability  to 
pursue  a  more  exciting  career  is  so  great  that 
there  exists  a  genuine  problem  of  infusing  new 
interests  into  repetitive  work.  Right  here,  we 
find  the  explanation  for  boredom  and  inatten- 

151 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

tion,  which  justly  concerns  the  safety  man,  and, 
if  he  intend"  to  deal  with  the  mental  aspects  of 
safety  in  a  fundamental  way,  he  will  study  the 
means  by  which  a  factory  job  can  be  made 
something  of  a  career. 

Account  must  be  taken  of  all  of  the  instincts 
of  human  nature;  the  motives  appealed  to  by 
the  advertising  specialists  for  foods,  clothes,  and 
cosmetics  must  be  utilized  by  men  who  adver- 
tise safety.  The  human  appeals  made  by  good 
politicians  building  a  municipal  machine  must 
be  made  by  those  who  attempt  to  organize  the 
good  will  of  workmen  around  a  safety  pro- 
gramme. The  safety  movement  did  not  begin 
to  have  any  effect  in  reducing  accidents  until 
safety  engineers  learned  to  give  more  attention 
to  committee  organization  than  to  mechanical 
safeguards.  When  they  discovered  that  they 
could  corral  the  impulses  and  interests  and 
energies  of  the  workers  by  means  of  putting 
them  to  work  upon  each  other,  they  began  to 
achieve  exhilarating  success.  And  yet,  only  a 
good  beginning  has  been  made.  The  employee 
representation  idea  carries  the  development 
one  step  farther.  When  social  organizations, 

152 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

recreation,  steady  employment,  good  pay,  and 
intelligent  management  of  processes  go  along 
with  these  things,  more  and  more  of  the  work- 
ers' normal  interests  are  mobilized  around  the 
job  and  a  happy  atmosphere  is  secured. 

There  have  been  many  approaches  to  the 
problem  of  putting  new  interest  into  a  job 
otherwise  monotonous.  Frederick  W.  Taylor, 
father  of  scientific  management,  probably  first 
brought  to  a  high  development  the  most  reli- 
able means.  He  gave  the  workman  a  definite 
standardized  task,  properly  prepared  tools,  de- 
tailed and  accurate  instructions,  including  a 
blue-print,  and  payment  in  proportion  to  out- 
put. He  put  in,  also,  a  little  extra  pay  for 
reaching  a  standard  day's  work.  Mr.  Taylor, 
by  these  devices,  at  once  gave  the  worker  a 
means  of  rating  the  efficiency  of  his  own  job  — 
a  bogey  score,  such  as  golfers  play  against  — 
and  a  reward  for  application  which  enabled  the 
worker  to  relate  in  his  mind  each  particular 
piece  he  produced  to  some  desired  expenditure 
of  money  outside  of  work. 

With  the  young  and  ambitious  worker,  the 
job  is  not  so  important  for  what  it  pays,  or  any 

153 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

of  its  other  immediate  aspects  of  pleasantness 
or  repugnance,  as  for  what  it  guarantees  in  the 
way  of  advancement.  A  clearly  defined  pro- 
motional scheme,  a  system  of  transfers,  an  ap- 
prenticeship training  schedule,  a  plan  for  rating 
operatives,  or  any  other  method  of  singling  out 
and  pushing  ahead  the  successful,  eager  young 
man,  automatically  invests  with  new  interest 
any  job  to  which  it  is  applied.  So,  too,  a  system 
of  instruction  for  given  jobs  throws  around 
them  a  glamour  of  prestige  and  interest,  as  well 
as  raising  hopes  of  advancement. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  these  things  are 
fundamental,  but  certainly  other  leaders  have 
added  much  to  the  devices  for  creating  interest 
in  the  job.  Mr.  Robert  Wolf  has  given  ample 
proof  of  his  ability  to  stimulate  increased  efforts 
without  the  immediate  financial  inducements  of 
piece-work,  merely  by  keeping  scores  on  work- 
men and  letting  them  compete  against  them- 
selves to  improve  their  records.  Indeed,  by 
making  these  scores  relate  to  the  efficiency  and 
success  of  the  whole  plant,  and  not  merely  to  an 
individual  bogey,  Mr.  Wolf  has  unquestionably 
enlarged  the  scope  of  this  type  of  incentive. 

IS4 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

Mr.  Henry  T.  Noyes,  General  Manager  of 
Art  in  Buttons,  Rochester,  New  York,  has  made 
an  additional  contribution  in  the  matter  of 
scientific  determination  of  needed  rest  periods 
and  in  the  matter  of  the  proper  use  of  rest 
periods.  Various  groups  of  operatives  in  his 
plant  are  allowed  from  three  to  twelve  minutes 
in  every  hour,  according  to  type  of  work.  The 
power  is  shut  down  and  no  one  is  permitted  to 
work.  A  rest  period  is  taken  up  with  music, 
dancing,  or  games  on  the  lawn.  To  those  who 
are  skeptical  about  such  arrangements,  the  best 
answer  is  that  Mr.  Noyes  came  to  this  schedule 
as  the  result  of  years  of  patient  experiment,  and 
is  convinced  that,  by  these  undisturbed  periods 
of  rest  and  entertainment  throughout  the  day, 
he  is  securing  increased  output,  better  quality, 
a  lower  accident  rate,  and  a  permanently  satis- 
fied body  of  workers. 

Something  must  also  be  said  for  the  develop- 
ment of  democracy  in  shop  management,  with 
which  the  name  of  John  Leitch  has  been  most 
widely  advertised,  but  in  which  the  great  body 
of  experience  either  antedated,  or  has  arisen  in- 
dependently of  his  work.   So  much  is  covered 

155 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

by  the  term  "shop  committee,"  however,  and 
it  can  be  so  damaged  by  awkward  handling, 
that  1  do  not  feel  like  dogmatizing  on  the  sub- 
ject. Probably,  it  will  be  generally  admitted 
that  a  stable  factory  organization  may  safely 
and  profitably  give  the  steady  employees  an 
ever-increasing  voice  in  the  solution  of  manage- 
ment problems.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that, 
if  permitted  to  do  so,  they  will  find  an  interest 
in  the  job  far  greater  than  mere  work  for  bet- 
ter earnings  can  give  them.  One  has  only  to 
read  Ordway  Tead's  "Instincts  in  Industry" 
to  be  reminded  of  how  many  more  things  there 
are  in  work  than  taking  orders  and  drawing  a 
weekly  pay  envelope. 

Distraction  and  inattention.  There  was  an  au- 
tomobile body  manufacturing  plant  in  Detroit 
which  had  so  many  accidents  in  the  wood-work- 
ing department  that  it  became  known  as  "  the 
slaughter  house."  In  running  circular  or  band 
saws,  workmen  frequently  made  false  move- 
ments and  cut  their  hands  instead  of  the  lum- 
ber. In  one  particularly  bad  month,  twenty- 
seven  fingers  were  lost.   This  brought  matters 

1S6 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

to  a  crisis.  The  management  was  more  or  less 
conscientious.  They  faced  the  situation  hum- 
bly and  finally  came  to  the  correct  conclusion 
that  the  real  trouble  did  not  so  much  lie  with 
the  workmen  as  with  the  fact  that  schedul- 
ing and  plant  housekeeping  were  both  as  bad 
as  possible.  Trucks  of  material  blocked  all  of 
the  aisles;  finished  pieces  were  not  removed 
promptly,  or  in  proper  sequence;  stock  chasers 
were  running  all  over  the  plant  for  what  they 
needed.  The  workmen  on  piece-work  at  one 
time  were  laboring  under  the  double  pressure  of 
the  foreman's  demands  and  their  own  desire  to 
boost  their  earnings.  At  other  times  they  were 
waiting  for  material  blocked  at  previous  ma- 
chines. A  general  atmosphere  of  physical  and 
mental  confusion  prevailed.  Periods  of  hurry 
and  anxiety  kept  men  distracted  when  their  at- 
tention should  have  been  fixed  in  an  orderly 
and  peaceful  way  upon  the  dangerous  task  in 
hand. 

At  last  the  company  introduced  an  eflficiency 
engineer  who  had  done  good  work  in  a  neigh- 
boring plant.   In  a  very  brief  time  he  straight- 
ened out  the  scheduling  and  the  material  move- 
rs/ 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

ment.  There  followed  promptly  a  noticeable 
reduction  in  the  accident  rate.  The  unsavory 
reputation  which  the  plant  had  had  with  its 
workmen  was  improved  and  the  company  was 
saved  from  being  dropped  as  a  bad  risk  by  a 
mutual  compensation  insurance  company. 

Another  plant  in  Detroit  in  which  I  was  in- 
terested once  sent  for  Alvin  F.  Knobloch,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Cleveland  Tractor  Company,  and 
one  of  the  most  thoughtful  managers  in  the 
country,  to  report  on  its  management  methods. 
We  had  spent  money  freely  in  buildings  and 
equipment.  We  paid  good  wages.  But  we  were 
not  proud  of  our  production  record.  And 
our  accident  situation  was  giving  us  anxiety. 
Mr.  Knobloch  very  promptly  put  his  finger  on 
the  difficulty. 

"You  have  too  much  confusion  here,"  he 
said.  "In  a  building  in  which  space  has  been 
wasted,  your  aisles  around  the  actual  work 
places  are  too  narrow.  Your  workmen  are 
crowded.  Your  routing  of  cores  and  chills  and 
patterns,  apparently,  is  not  good,  so  that  your 
men  sometimes  have  to  yell  for  more  work  and 
sometimes  have  to  stand  off  the  subforemen 

IS8 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

who  are  yelling  at  them  for  output.  I  feel  in- 
clined even  to  criticize  the  noise  and  the  bad 
ventilation,  as  adding  to  the  distraction  of  the 
men's  minds  from  their  work.  I  consider  no 
outlay  upon  planning  and  upon  other  phases  of 
management  too  great,  if  it  has  for  its  purpose 
and  result  the  putting  of  the  minds  of  the  work- 
men at  ease.  Let  nothing  trouble  your  work- 
men, and  they  will  give  you  no  trouble." 

Of  course,  Mr.  Knobloch  was  not  asking  for 
an  unnatural  state  of  calm,  impossible  in  a 
busy  plant.  People  can  become  accustomed  in 
their  usual  round  to  what,  to  an  outsider,  looks 
like  confusion.  A  person  who  lives  amid  all  of 
the  noises  of  a  city  finds  it  hard  to  sleep  when 
he  spends  his  first  night  out  in  the  country. 
Soldiers  returning  from  the  battle  front  are 
said  often  to  experience  difficulty  in  getting  to 
sleep  when  they  climb  into  a  real  bed  in  a  quiet 
room.  A  man  who  works  in  a  boiler  factory  or 
a  man  who  is  accustomed  to  riding  on  noisy 
vehicles  may  be  *'  used  up  "  by  his  work  —  par- 
ticularly in  the  course  of  his  lifetime  —  but  he 
is  not  distracted  by  it.  Plants  that  do  not  or- 
dinarily admit  visitors  find  that  it  disturbs 

159 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

workers  when  a  stranger  in  a  fur  overcoat  or  a 
lady  with  kid  gloves  is  conducted  through  the 
departments.  But  the  Ford  Motor  Company, 
which  takes  visitors  through  in  groups  of 
twenty-five  or  more  constantly  during  the  day, 
and  puts  through  the  back  door  more  sight- 
seers than  flivvers,  finds  that  no  disturbance 
whatever  is  occasioned  by  a  thing  so  common. 

Confusion  which  distracts  attention  arises 
either  from  unforeseen  contingencies  or  from  a 
management  situation  in  which  nothing  is  pre- 
planned. The  peaceful  state  of  mind,  which 
Mr.  Knobloch  declared  to  be  so  necessary,  de- 
pends upon  the  management's  creating  a  situa- 
tion in  which  the  workman  knows  precisely 
what  to  expect,  and  in  which  he  is  shielded 
from  the  unexpected.  Excited  or  angry  bosses, 
conflicting  orders,  delays  in  the  flow  of  mate- 
rial, failures  in  the  basic  service  activities,  such 
as  heating,  lighting,  water  supply,  etc.,  fights 
among  workmen,  even  accidents  to  other  work- 
men, all  tend  to  distract  the  attention  from  the 
work  in  hand  and  to  make  accidents  possible. 

It  would  be  an  error  to  assume  that  workmen 
stumble  into  accidents  only  because  of  igno- 

i6o 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

ranee,  depression,  or  wrong  "mental  set."  A 
man  may  be  intelligent  about  accident  risks, 
anxious  to  avoid  them,  in  excellent  physical 
condition,  and  intensely  interested  in  his  job, 
and  may  yet  sustain  an  accident  through  a 
temporary  distraction  of  attention.  This  will 
be  particularly  true,  of  course,  of  certain  tem- 
peraments. The  too  responsive  individual  will 
be  too  easily  interrupted.  Every  passing  dis- 
turbance will  distract  him. 

During  the  learning  period,  when  new  work 
is  being  taken  up,  an  extra  degree  of  conscious 
attention  is  needed  to  assist  in  the  formation 
of  safe  habits  and  right  ways  of  thinking.  A 
mental  diversion  at  such  a  time  may  easily 
result  in  an  unlucky  slip.  Nor  are  newcomers 
the  only  learners.  Conditions  in  a  plant  are 
always  changing;  men  are  always  transferring 
from  department  to  department ;  new  men  come 
in;  slightly  new  conditions  are  introduced  into 
familiar  jobs ;  the  type  of  work  on  a  machine  is 
changed.  The  indoctrination  of  the  new  forces, 
and  even  of  the  old  forces,  with  correct  habits, 
must  go  on  continually  and  without  the  hope 
of  ever  achieving  loo  per  cent  success.   Un- 

i6i 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

ceasing  attention  to  the  problem  of  safety 
is  therefore,  needed  on  the  part  of  all  work- 
ers. 

Sometimes  the  very  novelty  of  a  job  and  the 
demands  it  makes  will  help  to  focus  attention 
to  an  extent  which  will  cause  the  mind  to  re- 
sist distraction.  In  a  familiar,  routine  task, 
whatever  the  degree  of  interest,  whatever  the 
value  content,  the  attention  is  more  lightly 
held.  The  work  may  go  on  for  hours  without 
the  worker's  being  keenly  aware  of  where  he  is. 
The  mind  is  free  to  range  in  reverie.  Those  who 
overlook  the  immediate,  non-standard  phase  of 
any  performance  would  say  that  the  job  is  so 
automatic  that  attention  is  superfluous.  Yet 
we  have  seen  that  even  in  such  work  a  certain 
degree  of  attention  is  required,  because  the 
work  certainly  does  not  go  of  itself.  It  requires 
at  least  consciousness,  and  something  more. 
The  mind  may  seem  to  wander  and  may  even 
safely  do  so,  provided  it  is  not  engaged  in  what 
we  might  call  a  responsible  mental  activity,  or 
if  it  is  not  engrossed  in  an  active  emotional 
state.  But  bring  it  up  shortly,  with  the  neces- 
sity of  an  immediate  decision  on  a  question,  or 

162 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

let  it  be  agitated  with  fear,  anger,  or  any  other 
excitement,  and  effective  work  stops. 

In  general,  production  executives  do  not 
thoroughly  understand  the  requirement  of  situ- 
ation and  mental  atmosphere  which  comports 
most  naturally  with  the  efficient  conduct 
of  routine  work.  It  is  known  that  directed 
thought  is  not  required  to  do  skilled  work  of  a 
repetitive  nature,  and  that  habits  take  care  of 
such  work.  It  is  known,  also,  that  while  doing 
such  work  the  mind  has  a  certain  liberty  of 
action  to  occupy  itself  with  other  things.  Yet 
it  is  not  appreciated  also  that,  when  the  at- 
tention crosses  some  mysterious  threshold  of 
thought  or  of  emotion,  there  is  a  united  action 
on  the  part  of  the  whole  organism  which  causes 
routine  work  to  stop.  Perhaps  we  can  use  the 
phrase,  "the  actual  situation,"  to  describe  the 
state  of  mind  which  distracts  attention  from 
routine  work.  When  the  mind  crosses  the 
border-line  of  consideration  of  imagined  or  in- 
definite possibilities,  to  deal  with  real  and  im- 
mediate things,  when  it  ceases  to  range  over 
the  future  prospect  or  past  experience  and 
passes  into  the  immediate  present,  it  undergoes 

163 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

a  fundamental  change  of  attitude.  The  phys- 
ical or  mental  or  moral  situation  which  exists 
at  the  present  moment  seems  to  require  an  act 
of  decision,  or  at  least  a  directed  examination 
of  the  facts.  There  is  a  subordination  of  lower 
nerve  centers  and  a  concentration  of  attention 
which  assures  that  the  entire  forces  of  the  in- 
dividual's mind  are  directed  to  one  aim. 

Such  a  mobilization  of  energies  is  part  of  our 
animal  inheritance.  An  animal  whose  life  is 
hunted  by  another,  or  which  must  secure  its 
livelihood  by  hunting  others,  may  sleepily 
contemplate  the  prospects  of  a  life-and-death 
chase  without  more  than  a  twitch  of  the  whis- 
kers; but  the  moment  it  is  confronted  with  an 
actual  situation  —  say,  with  the  sight  of  an 
antagonist  —  its  whole  being  suddenly  changes. 
The  muscles  tighten,  the  eyes  flash,  the  hair 
stands  on  end;  the  agitated  beast  is  poised  for 
instant  pursuit  or  flight.  Even  men,  in  danger 
or  excitement,  experience  the  same  pulling  in 
of  the  energies.  The  mind  is  occupied  with  a 
single  purpose.  In  the  excitement  of  combat, 
fearful  wounds  are  not  felt.  Minor  inconveni- 
ences are  not  even  noticed ;  nothing  in  the  entire 

164 


THE  DIVERTED  MIND 

scene  engages  the  attention  save  the  object  of 
fear  or  hatred.  Sometimes  the  very  basic 
functions  of  speech  and  hearing  and  abiHty  to 
walk  are  paralyzed,  if  excitement  is  too  great. 
It  does  not  require  a  circumstance  so  en- 
grossing as  this  to  distract  the  attention  from 
normal  procedure.  Lesser  excitements  pro- 
duce lesser  concentrations  of  energy.  The  hu- 
man personality  is  wont  to  economize  its  re- 
sources by  holding  all  forces  ready  even  at  a 
threat  of  attack.  Perhaps,  with  this,  we  can 
understand  that,  while  it  is  not  always  possible 
to  analyze  just  what  will  interfere  with  routine 
labor,  we  can  generally  understand  that  there 
is  a  type  of  thinking  which  permits  diffusion  of 
energies  to  several  tasks,  including  routine 
work,  and  another  type  of  thinking,  usually 
connected  with  an  actual  situation,  which  brings 
them  into  focus.  When  the  highest  nerve  cen- 
ters are  vitally  engaged,  the  lower  ones  are  in- 
hibited. When  fear  or  excitement  direct  atten- 
tion to  some  situation,  the  digestion  itself  halts 
for  the  moment,  every  energy  is  subordinated 
to  central  brain  control.  Thus  we  see  why  a 
violent  distraction  not  only  draws  attention 

i6s 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

away  from  the  immediate,  non-standard  aspects 
of  performance,  but  ever  somewhat  paralyzes 
the  automatic  element. 

The  management  which  is  interested  in 
safety  will  not  alone  see  to  it  that  attention  is 
normally  given  to  routine  jobs  because  they 
are  interesting,  but  also  will  preserve  the  worker 
from  interruptions  which  interfere  with  both 
attention  and  habit. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

The  emotional  crisis.  "He  was  fired  only  an 
hour  ago,"  said  the  foreman.  "He  went  back 
to  clean  up  his  machine  and  got  hurt." 

Here  was  a  case  of  a  man,  "mad  clean 
through,"  or  sick  with  anxiety  and  shame  at 
having  received  his  discharge,  who  was  careless 
in  winding  up  his  job.  He  stuck  his  hand  into 
the  gears  and  received  a  bad  laceration.  So, 
instead  of  passing  in  his  tool  checks  and  draw- 
ing final  pay,  he  found  himself  in  the  hospital. 
A  flash  of  keen  emotion  —  that  was  all,  but  it 
put  him  on  the  retired  list  for  ten  weeks. 

There  was  a  steady  workman  in  the  core- 
room  whose  piece-work  production  was  often 
the  subject  of  dispute  with  the  tally  clerk.  Bad 
blood  arose  between  them,  as  the  workman  be- 
came convinced  that  the  clerk  was  deliberately 
altering  the  records  to  lower  his  pay.  The  core- 
maker  kept  an  accurate  count  on  his  own  out- 
put, to  check  up  against  the  office  records. 

167 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

One  day,  when  the  third  pay  envelope  in  suc- 
cession showed  a  shortage,  he  left  his  bench  in 
hot  anger  to  pursue  the  tally  clerk  for  a  correc- 
tion. In  running,  he  stepped  on  a  piece  of  gas- 
pipe  carelessly  left  on  the  floor.  It  rolled  under 
his  foot  throwing  him  to  the  ground  and  break- 
ing his  arm.  The  pipe,  of  course,  "had  no  busi- 
ness to  be  there,"  as  the  accident  report  stated, 
but  the  reason  for  the  mishap  was  quite  as 
much  the  state  of  mind  of  the  injured  man,  for, 
in  ordinary  circumstances,  he  surely  would  have 
avoided  stepping  on  the  pipe. 

A  lathe  operator  was  given  a  "  bawling-out " 
by  the  foreman  for  a  piece  of  defective  work. 
The  workman  considered  the  reprimand  un- 
fair, because  he  had  complained  of  the  tools 
furnished  him  without  getting  any  attention. 
The  foreman,  however,  was  not  disposed  to 
allow  for  that,  and  told  the  lad  that  if  more 
work  were  spoiled  he  would  not  alone  be 
docked  in  his  pay,  but  would  have  to  "go  out 
and  find  himself  a  job  as  a  junk-man!" 

This  final  insult  so  roused  the  operator  that 
he  resolved  to  complain  no  more  of  the  faulty 
tools,  but  to  grind  his  own.   As  soon  as  the 

i68 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

foreman  was  out  of  sight  he  snatched  up  a 
cutting-tool  and  ran  over  to  an  idle  grinder, 
turned  it  on  himself,  and  pushed  the  tool  up 
against  the  side  of  the  thin  emery  wheel.  The 
wheel  exploded  under  the  awkward  strain,  and 
a  piece  flew  up,  cut  his  eyebrow,  and  laid  open 
his  cheek  so  that  for  the  moment  it  appeared 
that  he  had  lost  an  eye.  The  accident  report 
blamed  the  worker  for  disobedience  of  orders, 
but  it  seems  that  the  real  cause  was  less  the  fact 
of  his  grinding  his  own  cutter  and  rather  more 
the  ill-considered  manner  of  his  grinding  it,  due 
to  his  state  of  hot  temper.  Ordinarily  he  would 
have  known  better  than  to  shove  the  tool 
against  the  wheel  so  wickedly. 

To  the  person  who  casually  passes  through  a 
factory  department  things  may  ordinarily  look 
all  serene.  The  belts  turn,  the  machines  sing, 
or  groan,  or  pound,  in  a  regular,  monotonous 
way.  The  workers  rarely  talk,  or  only  in  im- 
personal snatches.  The  straw  boss  moves 
about,  shouting  briefly  in  this  one's  ear  or 
calipering  a  sample  of  that  one's  production. 
The  dull  seriousness  of  the  life  would  appar- 
ently calm  rather  than  produce  or  aggravate 

169 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

emotional  strain.  And  yet,  if  we  could  only 
look  beneath  the  surface  and  take  a  survey  of 
the  states  of  mind  of  the  men  in  a  given  room, 
what  a  turmoil  would  be  opened  up  to  us! 

Indeed,  let  us  imagine  for  a  moment  that  we 
are  gifted  with  a  kind  of  second  sight,  and  are 
able  to  get  into  radio  communication  with  the 
hearts  of  these  quiet,  laborious  machine  tenders. 
Let  us  walk  through  the  aisles  of  a  factory  and 
halt  before  each  person  we  meet,  and  eavesdrop 
on  his  inner  life.  Some,  we  shall  find,  are  too 
stupid  to  present  to  us  any  thought  worthy  of 
our  attention.  Others  are  phlegmatic.  Most  of 
them,  indeed,  are  engaged  in  mere  reverie  —  a 
stream  of  impressions,  recollections,  and  vague 
wishes,  too  nebulous  and  fleeting  even  to  be 
formed  into  words.  The  semi-automatic  nature 
of  the  work  allows  the  thoughts  to  play  in  this 
fashion,  and  the  ordinary  mind  in  ordinary 
health  will,  in  such  circumstances,  roam  in  the 
same  aimless  fashion  at  work  as  in  sleep.  At 
the  end  of  the  day  it  will  be  as  difficult  and  as 
pointless  for  the  automatic  machine  tender  to 
try  to  recall  what  has  passed  through  his  brain 
as  we  find  it  ordinarily  to  repeat  our  dreams. 

170 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

Let  us  ignore  such  cases,  and  pick  out  those 
whose  states  of  mind  have  a  significance  for  our 
inquiry  into  the  causes  of  accidents. 

Here,  for  instance,  is  Bill  Harper,  a  fairly- 
new  worker  in  the  department.  He  is  a  young- 
ster —  only  twenty-one  —  and  not  very  pa- 
tient. He  spends  his  money  on  a  "steady  girl," 
and  is  not  quite  satisfied  with  his  piece-work 
earnings.  He  is  broaching  brass-bearings,  and 
the  stock  is  n't  good.  The  molders  have  man- 
aged to  get  sand  into  the  metal  and  the  broach 
tears  out  chunks  of  the  stock  where  it  ought  to 
leave  a  clean  cut.  Bill  has  called  this  to  the  fore- 
man's attention  to-day,  yesterday,  and  the  day 
before.  The  foreman  had  a  row  with  the  foun- 
dry superintendent  over  it  yesterday  and  came 
off  rather  badly.  To-day  he  hesitates  to  renew 
the  discussion,  and  has  tried  the  experiment  of 
blaming  Bill.  He  has  just  told  Bill  that  he 
could  n't  broach  holes  in  a  Swiss  cheese  without 
spoiling  it.  In  a  few  minutes  the  inspector  will 
come  around  and  reject  twenty  per  cent  of  all 
that  Bill  has  produced  this  morning.  Bill  sees 
his  pay  dwindling,  and,  when  we  find  him,  he 
has  just  decided  to  take  his  girl  to  the  movies 

171 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

to-night  instead  of  to  the  vaudeville,  as  he  had 
promised.  What  he  feels  about  his  foreman  is 
good !  As  we  leave  him,  he  is  still  putting  one 
in  and  taking  it  out,  putting  another  in  and  tak- 
ing it  out  —  calm  and  steady,  to  all  outward 
appearances ;  but  he  will  shortly  broach  a  piece 
out  of  his  finger. 

Meanwhile,  we  find  ourselves  looking  in  on 
the  thoughts  of  one  Mike  Lados.  His  name  was 
Ladoslodovitch,  the  last  place  he  worked,  and 
before  that  he  called  himself  Stanley,  because 
the  first  name  of  the  employment  manager  was 
Stanley.  The  boys  liked  that  employment  man 
and  ten  of  the  Polish  workers  changed  their 
names  to  Stanley.  Our  friend  now  calls  himself 
Lados,  however.  Mike  is  putting  the  babbit- 
linings  in  bearings.  It  is  a  sweaty,  tiresome  job, 
and  it  keeps  him  moving.  As  he  squints  at  his 
red-hot  work  he  seems  all  absorbed  by  it,  but 
he  is  looking  through  it,  into  his  little  house  in 
Hunky  Town.  There  Is  a  crisis  at  home.  For 
seventeen  years  in  America  he  has  saved  money 
to  go  back  to  the  old  country.  His  first  wife 
died,  leaving  him  six  children.  His  second  wife, 
a  younger  woman,  brought  him  another  child 

172 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

last  year.  The  financial  strain  of  rearing  a  fam- 
ily has  made  saving  difficult,  but  Mike  had  got 
ahead  two  thousand  dollars.  He  did  n't  put  the 
money  in  the  bank,  but  hid  it  in  the  house.  Day 
before  yesterday  his  wife  took  the  money  and 
decamped  with  a  young  boarder  in  the  house. 
She  left  all  the  first  wife's  children  to  Mike  and 
took  her  baby.  Mike  stayed  out  from  work  one 
day,  and  then  came  back  on  the  job  this  morn- 
ing to  begin  saving  again  for  the  trip  to  Poland. 
The  children  are  left  in  the  care  of  the  oldest 
girl,  and  as  we  see  Mike  he  is  searching  his  soul 
on  the  question  whether  he  is  glad  that  his  wife 
took  the  youngest  child.  He  always  played 
with  the  baby  when  he  got  home  at  night. 
Would  he  rather  have  the  care  of  it  now,  he 
wonders.  It  is  a  deep  question,  and  Mike  finds 
it  hard  to  keep  his  mind  on  babbit  metal.  We 
hope  that  he  does  n't  spill  any  of  it  on  his  foot. 
The  next  man,  Grant  Simpson,  is  now  acting 
as  a  stockroom  clerk  at  sixteen  dollars  a  week. 
Before  prohibition  he  drank  his  money  up  in 
saloons,  and  fell  from  one  position  to  another. 
He  began  as  a  salesman,  rose  to  an  important 
office  position,  but  as  the  result  of  his  bad 

173 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

habits  he  lost  step  with  the  world.  He  has  tried 
for  the  last  two  years  to  build  himself  up,  but 
his  health  isn't  good.  He  is  nervous  and 
"cranky."  To-day  when  we  find  him  he  has 
just  had  a  violent  set-to  with  the  balance-of- 
stores  clerk  over  an  alleged  discrepancy  in  his 
perpetual  inventory  figures  on  three-eighths  inch 
hex  nuts.  His  mind  was  occupied,  at  the  time, 
with  a  telephone  call  from  his  wife.  His  wife 
said  that  the  installment  house  men  were  call- 
ing to  get  the  furniture.  Grant  told  her  to 
hold  them  off  by  giving  them  the  rent  money. 
She  said  that  the  landlord  had  just  got  the 
rent  money  ten  minutes  before.  At  this  point 
the  balance-of-stores  clerk  had  entered  and 
shouted,  and,  in  good  nature,  but  obvious  con- 
tempt of  the  stores-keeper,  said,  "Grant,  get 
off  that  'phone,  and  tell  me  where  the  hell  you 
get  these  figures  on  hex  nuts ! "  Grant's  nerves 
snapped.  One  thing  led  to  another,  and  now 
the  boss  is  on  his  way  out  to  fire  Grant,  because 
he  is  really  too  erratic  to  keep  on  a  responsible 
job  like  that.  Meanwhile,  it  will  be  lucky  for 
Grant  if  he  does  n't  pull  a  box  of  pressure- 
gauges  down  onto  his  head.  There!  What  did 

174 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

we  tell  you  ?  Down  it  comes !  When  Grant  re- 
vives, the  doctor  will  put  in  seven  stitches. 

Let  us  now  place  ourselves  at  the  head  of  the 
stairs  going  down  to  the  girls'  locker  and  rest- 
room.  Millie  Jones  is  on  her  way  here.  She  is 
looking  at  nothing  around  her.  Her  thoughts 
are  fixed  on  what  happened  last  night.  She  is 
living,  again,  that  moment  in  the  dark,  as  her 
lover  tells  her  that  it  is  n't  his  fault  what  has 
happened.  "You  must  have  been  going  with 
some  other  man,"  he  says.  He  pulls  himself 
away  from  her  grasp  and  leaves  her  alone  on  the 
bench  in  the  park.  The  agonizing  loneliness  of 
this  moment  has  fixed  itself  in  Millie's  mind, 
and  all  morning  she  has  aimlessly  fumbled  over 
her  work  as  an  inspector  till  it  is  discovered 
that  she  is  not  stopping  the  bad  ones.  The  fore- 
lady  has  just  told  her  to  go  downstairs  and  rest 
up.  As  the  girl  approaches  us,  we  can  see  that 
she  is  "ready  to  scream."  Indeed,  as  she 
reaches  the  top  of  the  stairs  she  becomes  hys- 
terical and  takes  a  bad  tumble.  She  will  draw 
compensation  for  the  fall,  but  the  company  will 
drop  her  from  the  pay-roll  for  having  hysterics. 

In  the  foundry  division  across  the  street  we 

I7S 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

hunt  up  Millie's  lover,  Bob  Mitchell,  a  time- 
keeper. As  we  come  up  to  him,  he  seems  to  be 
sorting  time  tickets,  and  multiplying  and  ex- 
tending figures.  But  his  mind  is  n't  on  his 
work.  A  seething  torment  of  fear  and  confu- 
sion has  made  a  mess  of  his  thoughts.  He  sees 
no  easy  way  out  of  the  situation  which  Millie 
put  up  to  him  last  night.  Last  week  he  got 
himself  engaged  to  another  girl.  Last  night  he 
tried  to  "break  it  off"  with  Millie  and  was  told 
that  there  was  an  important  obstacle.  To-day 
he  is  trying  to  decide  whether  it  is  best  to  hasten 
or  to  postpone  his  marriage,  whether  to  throw 
up  his  job,  quit  the  whole  situation,  and  go  to 
another  city,  or  what  to  do.  Bob  is  n't  on  a 
kind  of  work  in  which  there  is  an  accident 
hazard,  but  his  emotional  situation  is  such 
that  if  he  were  in  a  dangerous  job,  in  a  short 
while  he  would  very  likely  have  something  to 
take  his  mind  off  his  troubles. 

The  chronic  maladjustment.  Our  survey  of 
the  inner  lives  of  these  people  need  not  be  lim- 
ited to  temporary  or  acute  emotional  crises.  We 
may  note  the  chronic,  brooding  worries  and 

176 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

troubles,  the  inescapable  situations  which  grad- 
ually wear  in  on  mental  health. 

Here  is  Joe  Netarsky.  His  wife  has  been  a 
nagging  invalid  for  ten  years.  He  has  had  no 
normal  family  life  during  all  that  time.  His 
young  sister-in-law  has  kept  house  for  him.  He 
secretly  covets  the  girl  because  she  is  sweet- 
tempered  and  healthy.  She,  however,  has  a 
"steady,"  and  every  night  slips  out  with  her 
beau  as  soon  as  the  dishes  are  done.  Joe  does 
n't  dare  admit  to  himself  what  his  real  desires 
are,  and  he  pretends  to  believe  that  his  job  as  a 
sand-blaster  is  ruining  his  health.  He  broods 
over  the  boss's  refusal  to  promote  him  to 
driving  one  of  those  electric  trucks  that  go 
shooting  through  the  plant.  To  him  the  electric 
truck  has  come  to  symbolize  the  unattainable. 
The  forbidding  boss  has  gradually  come  to 
stand  in  his  mind  as  a  persecutor.  One  day  the 
boss  will  speak  sharply  to  him,  and  Joe  will 
retaliate  by  hurling  a  casting  at  him. 

Stella  Maguire  is  an  old  maid  employed  as 
a  worker  on  a  light-punch-press  job.  She  has 
been  tried  on  inspection  and  other  work  that 
brought  her  into  close  touch  with  other  girls, 

177 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

but  she  was  too  quarrelsome  to  keep  there. 
Stella  is  a  man-hater,  but,  oddly  enough,  gets 
on  better  in  the  shop  —  possibly  because  the 
work  itself  isolates  her.  Her  real  trouble  orig- 
inally was  her  red  hair,  which  brought  her 
ridicule.  An  unrequited  love  affair  seemed  to 
her  to  owe  its  unhappiness  to  her  silly  hair.  So 
she  darkened  it,  but  it  kept  growing  out  red, 
and  at  last  she  left  it  so,  half  red,  half  brown, 
and  told  the  world  to  go  hang.  She  has  a  delu- 
sion that  a  rich  uncle  will  some  day  die  and 
leave  her  tremendously  wealthy.  No  one  ever 
saw  the  rich  uncle  and  her  fellow  workers  have 
good  reason  to  doubt  his  existence.  Stella  is 
usually  excited  and  irritable,  but  she  often 
slips  into  a  day-dream  about  the  uncle.  Twice 
in  the  past  year  she  has  hurt  her  hand  in  the 
press.  No  one  guessed  that  the  reason  for  it 
was  her  complete  mental  abstraction  at  the 
time,  so  she  is  kept  on  the  work  quite  as  if  she 
were  safe  to  trust  there. 

Cases  like  Stella's  are  close  to  the  border-line 
of  insanity.  And,  indeed,  many  people  who, 
if  examined  by  experts,  would  be  pronounced 
mental  cases  calling  for  asylum  care,  are  for 

178 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

want  of  such  examination  permitted  to  blunder 
their  way  through  the  world  without  proper 
treatment  and  guidance.  Industrial  pursuits 
are  burdened  with  them.  Employers  and  fel- 
low workers  recognize  them  as  "queer"  or 
quarrelsome  or  stupid,  but  not  as  insane.  In 
any  typical  factory  or  mill  a  suirey  such  as  we 
have  here  pretended  to  take  would  astonish  the 
employers,  if  the  real  mental  and  emotional 
conditions  of  the  workers  could  be  revealed. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  insanity  as  a 
condition  of  total  want  of  sense  and  control. 
We  imagine  it  in  terms  of  maniacal  outbursts, 
screaming  tantrums,  and  unintelligible  gibber- 
ish. If  a  person  is  crazy,  he  is  crazy,  and  that 's 
an  end  of  it.  He  goes  "nutty"  all  at  once,  we 
assume.  He  is  discovered  in  a  raving  condi- 
tion, quickly  captured  by  six  strong  men,  and 
sent  to  an  asylum.  There  he  is  put  into  a 
strait-jacket  and  fed  through  the  nose.  The 
public,  indeed,  has  no  patience  for  any  other 
kind  of  insanity.  When  a  man  goes  mad,  it 
wants  to  see  him  crazy;  it  expects  him  to  put 
up  a  show. 

This  public  attitude  grows  out  of  the  belief 
179 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

that  the  mind  is  all  of  one  character  —  a  single 
unified  thing  like  a  barrel  of  apples.  It  is 
familiarly  referred  to  as  "the  inside  of  your 
head."  Anything  that  goes  into  it  is  supposed 
to  be  added  to  what  is  already  there,  like  a 
dipper  of  hot  water  poured  into  a  bath.  It  is 
recognized  that  different  heads  have  different 
qualities  —  various  grades  of  gray  matter  in 
them;  but  it  is  generally  assumed  that  the  gray 
matter  of  any  given  person's  head  is  the  same, 
front  and  back,  from  side  to  side,  and  from  top 
to  bottom.  When  it  goes  bad,  it  goes  that  way 
altogether.  If  a  mind  is  "off"  in  one  matter, 
we  feel  it  can't  be  trusted  in  any.  To  the  cas- 
ual notion  the  mind  is  a  cavern  of  ideas.  It  is 
like  a  telephone;  a  thing  with  talk  inside  of  it. 
It  may  get  out  of  order,  but,  if  it  does,  it  can't 
be  used  at  all.  So  long  as  it  works,  it  is  all  right. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  mind  is  a 
vastly  more  complex  thing  than  this.  It  may, 
of  course,  go  bad  through  and  through  as  the 
public  likes  to  assume.  A  general  physical  de- 
cay and  disease  will  bring  this  about.  But  it 
more  often  simply  weakens  or  fails  to  work 
properly  in  some  one  department.  We  might 

i8o 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

reasonably  compare  the  mind  to  an  orchestra, 
which  depends  for  its  harmonious  effects  upon 
a  group  of  independently  operated  instruments. 
Any  one  horn  or  woodwind  may  be  badly 
played,  or  any  one  violin  out  of  tune,  and  the 
effect  is  noticeable  only  when  the  music  calls 
the  faulty  player  into  prominence.  Or  the  con- 
ductor himself  and  his  entire  ensemble  may  be 
as  poor  as  a  village  band  practicing  on  "The 
Holy  City."  Almost  anything  may  be  wrong 
with  an  orchestra,  part  or  whole.  And  so  with 
a  mind.  It  is  a  complex,  built-up  structure, 
depending  for  its  efficiency  on  bodily  health, 
on  the  secretions  of  the  ductless  glands,  on 
hereditary  tendencies,  and  on  accumulated  re- 
lationships with  the  environment.  The  lifetime 
experiences  are  recorded  in  the  brain  in  what 
are  known  as  the  "action-patterns"  —  habit- 
ual ways  of  thinking  and  responding.  It  is 
easy  to  believe  that  some  action-patterns  may 
be  useful  and  normal,  and  others  quite  de- 
fective —  insane.  There  are  all  grades  and 
varieties  of  mental  disease.  There  are  the 
minor  moods  and  distempers,  the  false  concep- 
tions, beliefs,  and  delusions  from  which  we  all 

i8i 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

suffer,  and,  in  calmer  moments,  recognize  for 
what  they  are.  They  grade  up  to  the  perma- 
nent derangements  which  wholly  disqualify  for 
ordinary  pursuits.  In  between,  there  are  grades 
of  disease  which  experts  will  pronounce  insan- 
ity, but  which  often  escape  detection  for  years. 
This  is  due  not  alone  to  the  fact  that  insanity 
generally  begins  mildly  and  intermittently,  but 
also  that  it  often  touches  only  a  small  portion 
of  the  mental  life  —  and  not  necessarily  an  im- 
portant section.  It  may  be  a  simple  delusion 
or  an  hallucination  harbored  as  a  kind  of  extra 
character  in  a  play,  a  grotesque  figure  rarely 
seen  or  heard,  who  takes  no  necessary  part 
in  the  performance.  The  plot  unfolds  without 
him  and  the  other  characters  may  ignore  him. 
Or  it  may  be  that  the  insanity  merely  exag- 
gerates or  plays  tricks  with  the  emotions,  so 
that  they  cease  to  bear  a  normal  relationship  to 
current  experience.  When  this  is  so,  it  is  clear 
that  it  requires  a  fairly  close  observation  of  the 
deranged  person  to  discover  how  far  his  feelings 
are  irrelevant.  We  generally  assume  that  a  man 
is  his  own  best  judge  of  what  should  trouble 
him. 

182 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

Thus,  we  find  that  the  great  majority  of 
mental  cases  require  close  study  for  accurate 
diagnosis.  And  thus  it  becomes  possible  for 
insane  people  to  move  about,  pursue  a  more  or 
less  free  but  usually  unhappy  existence,  and  so 
find  their  way  into  industry.  The  late  Dr. 
E.  E.  Southerd,  a  great  specialist  in  mental 
diseases,  and  head  of  the  Boston  Psychopathic 
Hospital,  said:  "Insanity  cannot  be  defined." 
For  this  reason,  in  many  cases,  it  is  not  even 
suspected. 

The  psychology  of  insanity.  A  common  form 
of  insanity  is  syphilitic  —  paresis  —  which  fur- 
nishes 9  to  1 1  per  cent  of  the  cases.  It  usually 
escapes  detection  in  the  early  stages.  Even  a 
superficial  physical  examination  may  not  estab- 
lish a  diagnosis.  It  begins  to  manifest  itself  by 
a  lack  of  punctuality,  lack  of  arithmetical 
ability,  mistakes  in  direction,  "nerves,"  irri- 
tability, and  occasional  lapses  of  consciousness. 
None  of  these  things  alone  would  mark  the 
victim  at  once  as  insane. 

Another  common  form  of  insanity  —  de- 
mentia  praecox  —  generally   fools   the   casual 

183 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

observer.  The  sufferer  appears  to  know  where 
and  who  he  is;  his  memory  is  not  noticeably 
faulty  and  general  knowledge  is  retained  in  the 
early  stages.  Hallucination,  over-suggestibil- 
ity, over-activity,  and  wandering  attention 
may  mark  the  disquieted  mind,  but  few  laymen 
can  read  the  signs. 

The  paranoiac,  another  type  of  victim,  may 
have  delusions  of  persecution,  but  he  is  often 
able  to  persuade  people  that  he  really  is  a  vic- 
tim of  conspiracy  or  spite.  His  ordinary  con- 
duct may,  indeed,  appear  quite  sane. 

The  manic-depressive  type  of  insanity  is  a 
derangement  of  the  emotions  which  offers  no 
purely  mental  signs  whatever.  Indeed,  these 
and  most  of  the  other  cases  are  so  near  normal 
in  their  outward  appearance  that  one  might 
well  wonder  why  it  is  necessary  to  diagnose  and 
study  them  at  all.  The  reason  for  doing  so  is 
twofold.  In  the  first  place,  insanity  tends  to 
grow  worse  and  more  settled.  The  earlier  it  is 
detected,  the  better  the  chance  of  effecting  an 
improvement  or  cure.  In  the  second  place, 
while  the  ordinary  appearance,  conduct,  and 
ideas  of  the  insane  may  be  normal,  there  may 

184 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

be  a  lurking  phase  which  makes  him  dangerous 
to  himself  or  to  fellow  workers.  All  of  us  do 
strange  and  unaccountable  things  at  times; 
the  demented  person  does  them  more  fre- 
quently and  more  unaccountably. 

The  particular  danger  of  obscure  forms  of 
insanity  as  well  as  of  emotional  disturbances  of 
every  kind,  from  the  point  of  view  of  accidents, 
is  the  fact  that  there  is  always  some  aspect  of 
inverted  attention,  or  preoccupation.  An  en- 
tirely normal  person  always  reacts  to  what  is 
going  on  about  him.  He  listens  when  he  hears 
a  noise  and  jumps  when  surprised  by  some- 
thing he  does  n't  understand.  He  speaks  when 
he  is  spoken  to  and  "talks  sense"  in  reply. 
The  deranged  person  always  has  some  persist- 
ent idea,  however,  to  which  his  mind  must  give 
heed,  at  all  costs.  With  one,  it  is  a  dissociation 
of  personality  which  "takes  him  out  of  him- 
self," making  him  actually  live  over  an  emo- 
tional situation  which  occurred  in  a  time  gone 
by  or  in  another  place.  With  another,  it  may 
be  an  hallucination  —  the  belief  that  he  hears 
strange  voices  or  sees  things  to  which  others 
are  oblivious.  The  watchman  who  mutters  and 

i8s 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

talks  to  himself  may  be  carrying  on  conversa- 
tion with  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
with  the  firm  conviction  of  his  actual  pres- 
ence. The  sweeper  or  window-washer  who 
silently  moves  about  the  plant  may  be  harbor- 
ing the  delusion  that  he  owns  a  mortgage  on  the 
factory,  which  he  is  about  to  foreclose. 

The  brooding,  the  day-dreaming,  the  per- 
sistent worry  of  the  normal  person  possessed  by 
some  grief  or  problem  may  fix  his  attention  on 
a  matter  outside  of  himself  and  so  dull  his 
response  to  his  environment.  In  such  case  the 
proof  of  still  remaining  normal  lies  in  the  ability 
frankly  to  face  his  difficulty  and  deal  with  it 
for  what  it  is.  In  many  cases,  however,  there 
is  a  substitution  of  ideas.  Originally,  in  the 
attempt  to  escape  from  a  home  worry,  a  sex 
problem,  a  fear,  or  a  sense  of  inadequacy,  the 
unhappy  mind  turns  to  some  fanciful  counter- 
active. The  homely  girl,  for  instance,  starved 
for  love  and  admiration,  pictures  herself  as 
Cinderella,  suddenly  made  lovely  and  rich.  In 
course  of  time  any  occasion  likely  to  call  to 
mind  her  true  situation  automatically  turns  her 
thought  to  her  dream,  which  became  a  fixed 

i86 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

delusion.  Another  person  might  find  escape 
from  a  troublesome  situation  by  blaming  some 
one  outside  of  himself,  and  so  build  up  a  delu- 
sion of  persecution.  When  these  changes  come, 
insanity,  in  some  degree,  has  come. 

The  escape  from  a  troublesome  situation 
does  not  usually  take  the  form  of  a  substitution 
of  ideas.  There  must  always  be  some  escape, 
however.  The  mind  will  not  contemplate  un- 
happy images  and  situations  unmoved.  The 
very  capacity  to  suffer  is  a  guarantee  of  a  reac- 
tion of  some  character.  Dull  wits  or  deadened 
senses  may  not  react  further  —  but  if  they  do 
not,  at  least  they  have  reacted;  if  normal  re- 
sponses are  no  longer  given  to  a  stimulus,  the 
apathy  itself  is  a  form  of  insanity.  Normally 
we  weep  when  we  are  grieved,  laugh  when  we 
are  merry,  fight  when  we  are  angry,  and,  in  a 
state  of  untrammeled  nature,  we  make  brazen 
and  unblushing  advances  to  the  lady  of  our 
choice  when  we  fall  in  love.  Civilized  life  being 
an  organized  conspiracy  to  thwart  and  inhibit 
the  natural  expression  of  our  emotions  and 
desires,  however,  we  may  have  to  choose 
various  alternative  modes  of  response.  A  sub- 

187 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

stitution  of  ideas  may  result  in  insanity.  A 
"sublimation"  of  impulses  —  which  is  the  more 
normal  and  healthy  outlet  —  is  the  release  of 
energies  and  emotions  through  athletics,  play, 
artistic  endeavor,  or  religious  or  social  work. 
Another  form  of  outlet  is  destructive  action  — 
horseplay,  malicious  mischief,  or  crime.  Thiev- 
ery in  children,  for  instance,  has  sometimes 
been  traced  back  to  some  conflict  of  sex  ideas. 
This  all  sounds  very  simple.  It  is  another 
way  of  saying  that  all  forms  of  mental  or  emo- 
tional disturbance  have  a  similar  causation. 
It  grows  out  of  a  theory  which  regards  exag- 
gerated ambition,  excessive  altruistic  endeavor, 
destructive  or  criminal  acts,  and  all  the  various 
stages  of  mental  disease  —  including  down- 
right insanity  —  all  as  indirect  outlets  for  emo- 
tional impulses  which  are  denied  immediate 
expression.  It  is  not  difficult  so  to  understand 
them,  and  yet,  with  respect  to  insanity,  the 
conception  is  veiy  new,  and  not  yet  universally 
accepted  by  psychiatrists.  Till  very  recently, 
insanity,  where  it  was  not  identified  with  physi- 
cal brain  decay,  has  been  regarded  as  unex- 
plalnable.  To  speak  of  the   "psychology  of 

i88 


THE  TROUBLED  MIND 

insanity"  would  have  been  regarded  as  absurd. 
It  is,  therefore,  very  comforting  to  be  able  to 
bring  all  forms  of  mental  disturbance  under 
one  general  explanation.  It  gives  hope  that  a 
more  thorough  study  of  puzzling  cases  of  in- 
sanity will  always  reveal  at  the  roots  a  reason- 
able cause,  and  the  hope,  also,  that  means  of 
prevention  or  cure  of  a  portion  of  such  cases 
will  be  found. 

Prevention  would  take  the  course  of  either 
providing  mental  outlets  for  the  emotional 
energies,  or  by  early  education,  discipline, 
recreation,  etc.,  providing  adequate  substitutes 
for,  or  checks  on,  the  primal  impulses.  Cure 
would  take  the  course  of  analyzing  a  mental 
disturbance  back  to  its  original  cause,  and,  if 
possible,  removing  or  mitigating  the  cause, 
and  leading  the  mind  forward  again  from  the 
new  basis.  Such  prevention  and  cure  are  called 
"mental  hygiene,"  and  it  will  have  a  legitimate 
place  in  industry  in  the  future,  if  only  for  the 
sake  of  reducing  unhappiness  and  increasing 
working  efficiency.^ 

^  See  the  author's  paper,  Has  Mental  Hygiene  a  Practical 
Use  in  Industry?  which  may  be  obtainca  from  the  National 

189 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

It  will  probably  also  prove  to  be  a  factor  in 
reducing  accidents-  The  examples  given  at  the 
beginning  of  this  chapter  lend  some  color  to  the 
belief  that  emotional  disturbance  distracts  the 
mind  from  the  business  in  hand,  and  that  acci- 
dents happen  more  easily  to  a  mind  obsessed 
by  trouble. 

Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene,  370  Seventh  Avenue, 
New  York,  or  the  Massachusetts  Society  for  Mental  Hy- 
giene, 18  Tremont  Street,  Boston.  Excellent  papers  on  men- 
tal hygiene  in  industry  have  been  published  by  these  so- 
cieties. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

Body  and  mind.  A  text  on  psychology  ^  which  I 
picked  up  the  other  day  makes  no  mention  of 
the  mind!  The  Greek  source  of  the  word 
"psychology,"  which  is  used  in  the  title,  does, 
of  course,  mean  "discourse  about  the  mind." 
But  aside  from  this  remote  allusion  to  the  men- 
tal machinery,  the  author  —  a  recognized  au- 
thority on  the  subject  —  so  far  as  I  can  dis- 
cover, does  not  speak  of  the  mind. 

He  calls  attention,  himself,  to  the  fact  that 
he  "makes  no  reference  to  consciousness,  sen- 
sation, perception,  attention,  will,  image,  and 
the  like."  He  says  that  not  only  can  he  get 
along  without  them,  but  that  frankly  he  does 
n't  even  know  what  they  mean.  "I  have  re- 
tained such  terms  as  thinking  and  memory,  but 
I  have  carefully  redefined  them,"  says  this  ex- 
tremely modern  expositor  of  human  behavior. 

*  John  B.  Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a 
Behaviorist.  Philadelphia,  1919. 

191 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

Those  of  us  who  studied  psychology  when  it 
did  treat  of  the  mind,  and  read  authors  who 
thought  they  did  know  what  consciousness  and 
zvill  and  image  meant,  are  a  bit  handicapped 
for  understanding  Professor  Watson.  But  if  we 
can  put  aside  our  prejudices,  we  shall  be  in- 
terested to  discover  that  almost  all  recent 
psychologists  make  no  positive  distinction  be- 
tween the  body  and  the  mind.  In  writing  on 
these  subjects  they  reveal  little  difference  be- 
tween physiology  and  psychology.  The  former 
is  conceived  of  as  dealing  with  bodily  organs 
and  functions  individually,  without  regard 
to  their  response  to  the  general  environment. 
The  new  psychology  deals  with  these  same 
bodily  organs  and  functions  as  a  whole,  and 
with  their  response  to  the  outer  situation. 

The  modern  view  begs  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  mind  is  anything  more  than  the 
sum  total  of  the  functions  of  the  body.  But  it 
certainly  regards  the  mind  as  including  the 
body.  For  instance,  a  loss  of  a  hand  would  be 
the  loss  of  a  part  of  the  mind.  Does  this  sound 
reasonable?  If  you  have  dealt  with  accident 
cases,  you  may  dispute  this.   You  remember 

192 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

poor  old  Mike  Karaganovitch,  who  stuck  his 
hand  in  the  gears  and  drew  it  out  so  mutilated 
that  it  had  to  be  cut  off  at  the  wrist.  And  for 
several  weeks  afterward  Mike  complained  of 
pain  in  the  fingers  of  the  amputated  hand. 
Surely,  all  that  his  hand  had  ever  been  to  his 
mind  was  still  there,  troubling  him ! 

The  "  behaviorist "  psychologist,  however, 
would  not  be  at  a  loss  to  explain  this  oddity 
as  the  dying  reactions  of  severed  nerves  that 
formerly  extended  to  and  from  the  fingers  and 
that  will  soon  cease  to  carry  any  impression 
to  the  brain.  A  certain  area  of  the  brain  ceases 
to  function  after  the  loss  of  the  hand,  save  per- 
haps as  memory. 

But  if  loss  of  an  organ  is  loss  of  part  of  the 
mind,  so  disease  in  any  organ  must  be  regarded 
as  an  infirmity  of  the  mind.  Changes  in  phys- 
ical states  will  be  regarded  as  being  accom- 
panied by  changes  in  mental  states.  A  lowered 
vitality  will  be  paralleled  by  a  lowered  men- 
tality. If  mind  and  body  are  just  two  views  of 
the  same  thing,  inability  to  react  promptly  in  a 
physical  way  will  be  accompanied  or  caused  by 
a  sluggishness  in  the  brain. 

193 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

It  is  worth  while  to  consider  how  far  the 
facts  about  disease  bear  out  this  theory.  If  it 
is  true,  of  course  we  shall  need  to  watch  very 
carefully  the  physical  condition  of  the  workers. 
It  will  not  be  sufficient  to  hire  those  who  are  fit, 
and  assign  them  to  tasks  in  proportion  to  their 
strength.  It  will  also  be  necessary  to  watch  the 
changes  in  their  physical  condition.  A  man  who 
is  just  capable  mentally  of  handling  a  danger- 
ous process  while  in  the  pink  of  health  will  be 
come  a  menace  should  he  become  depressed  and 
ill. 

Apparent  exceptions  to  this  line  of  reasoning 
will,  of  course,  at  once  spring  to  mind.  I  can, 
myself,  cite  a  case  that  seems  to  challenge  the 
theory  that  the  mind  exists  only  through  the 
body.  A  classmate  in  high  school  dove  in  shal- 
low water  and  broke  his  neck.  He  was  not 
killed,  but  paralyzed.  For  six  years  he  lay  help- 
less, unable  to  feed  himself  or  perform  any 
other  bodily  activity  unaided.  Nevertheless, 
his  intelligence  appeared  to  be  in  no  wise 
damaged.  Indeed,  his  cheerfulness,  his  wit,  his 
sound  reasoning  on  politics  and  other  social 
questions,  his  interest  in  good  books  and  good 

194 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

music,  all  increased.  He  was  such  pleasant 
company  that,  not  because  they  pitied  him 
chiefly,  but  because  they  profited  by  knowing 
him,  constant  streams  of  visitors  from  every 
station  of  life  sought  his  lively  companion- 
ship. 

Such  a  case  seems  to  belie  the  assertion  that 
an  injury  to  the  body  is  an  injury  to  a  part  of 
the  mind.  Upon  reflection,  however,  we  must 
admit  that  it  is  a  deceptive  case,  because  paral- 
ysis due  to  pressure  upon  the  spinal  cord  may 
interfere  with  only  a  small  portion  of  the  mind 
and  body.  In  this  case  it  blocked  the  control 
only  of  a  portion  of  the  voluntary  muscles.  The 
great  nerve  centers,  which  are  the  larger  part  of 
the  mind,  namely,  the  solar  plexus  and  the 
other  centers  controlling  involuntary  muscles 
and  participating  in  the  control  of  the  diges- 
tion, the  respiration,  circulation,  etc.,  were  all 
unaffected.  From  the  point  of  view  of  func- 
tions, this  boy's  injury  was  very  slight.  He 
could  not  move  about,  but  his  body  was  not 
sick  in  any  other  way.  In  the  course  of  time, 
lack  of  exercise  and  lack  of  control  over 
the  eliminative  functions  impaired  his  general 

195 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

health,  and  with  that  change  his  mental  effi- 
ciency did  suffer. 

Such  a  case,  therefore,  when  studied,  presents 
no  exception  to  the  probable  fact  that  every 
injury  which  permits  the  mind  to  function 
without  apparent  loss  of  power  will  prove  to  be 
local.  The  mere  loss  of  a  mechanical  function 
or  member  is  not  to  be  confused  with  an  im- 
pairment of  vital  function,  which  we  know  as 
disease. 

The  human  body  is  such  a  highly  organized 
and  versatile  aggregation  that  the  loss  of  a 
single  member,  or  even  of  a  single  sense,  does 
not  greatly  impair  the  physical  efficiency.  We 
should  not,  therefore,  expect  impairment  to 
produce  larger  consequences  in  the  mind. 
Helen  Keller  is  deaf  and  blind,  and  yet  she  is 
able  to  appreciate  art  and  music,  to  address 
audiences  in  a  clearly  intelligible  voice,  and 
convey  intelligent  ideas  about  politics.  With 
her  finger-tips  on  the  sound  box  of  a  violin  she 
can  thrill  with  pleasure  to  the  playing  of 
a  Kreisler,  and,  lightly  running  her  delicate 
hands  over  the  surface  of  a  piece  of  sculpture, 
she  can  appreciate  the  beauties  of  idea,  form, 

196 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

and  modeling  which  the  artist  has  imparted 
to  it.  At  first  thought,  her  mind  might  seem 
to  be  whole,  and  unimpaired  by  her  physical 
deficiencies.  Many  would  stoutly  argue,  in- 
deed, that  it  is  absurd  to  compare  her  intelli- 
gence unfavorably  with  that  of  a  fully  endowed 
organism.  It  seems  to  be  a  denial  of  the  power 
of  soul  to  confine  it  to  what  the  poor  body  is 
able  to  perform.  None  of  us  can  quite  escape 
this  sentiment,  for  it  is  not  alone  founded 
in  our  ingrained  religious  prejudices,  but  also 
inherent  in  our  natural  assumptions  about  our 
minds  which  we  form  through  introspection. 
When  we  look  into  our  own  minds,  we  are 
first  aware  of  consciousness,  and  this  we  take 
to  be  our  mind.  But  consciousness  is  only  an 
infinitely  small  part  of  the  sentient  organism. 
Only  a  portion  of  the  mind  is  conscious  at  any 
one  time.  When  we  are  "carried  away,"  for 
instance,  by  music,  we  are  using  chiefly  our 
sense  of  hearing  and  that  portion  of  the  brain 
which  has  stored  up  music  patterns.  Sight, 
and  the  other  senses,  memories  of  other  days, 
even  the  feeling  of  who  we  are  and  what  our 
present  situation  is,  may  be  for  the  moment 

197 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

wholly  "out  of  mind"  without  our  conscious- 
ness being  any  the  less  acute.  When  we  forget, 
we  simply  put  a  known  thing  out  of  conscious- 
ness. When  we  remember,  we  call  it  into  con- 
sciousness again  at  the  end  of  a  chain  of  asso- 
ciated impressions. 

We  hear  with  a  part  of  the  mind,  we  see  with 
a  part  of  the  mind,  we  feel  with  a  part  of  the 
mind,  and  so  on.  It  is  not  alone  impossible 
for  all  the  mind  to  be  active  at  once,  but  if  it 
were,  it  would  be  a  bedlam  of  conflicting  emo- 
tions and  impressions.  A  three-ringed  circus 
and  a  Battle  of  Gettysburg  rolled  into  one 
would  engage  but  a  corner  of  the  available 
stage. 

When  a  blind  man  listens  to  a  performance  of 
Beethoven's  Fifth  Symphony,  therefore,  he  is 
employing  as  large  a  portion  of  his  mind  as  we 
could  possibly  use  for  the  same  purpose.  When 
Helen  Keller  runs  her  finger-tips  over  the 
features  of  a  child  asleep,  she  receives  an  im- 
pression as  satisfying  and  as  complete  as  the 
watchful  mother  might  in  the  circumstances. 
The  loving  touch  disdains  the  coldness  of  mere 
sight.  Those  who  suffer  from  the  loss  of  facul- 

198 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

ties  do  not  feel  any  loss  of  consciousness.  Their 
limitations  merely  require  them  to  rely  more 
constantly  upon  what  senses  they  have  left. 
And  in  the  more  frequent  exercise  of  the 
remaining  capacities  and  closer  attention  to 
distinctions  in  those  senses,  they  seem  to  de- 
velop a  special  acuity  and  fineness  in  them.  A 
deaf  man  compensates,  in  part,  by  cultivating 
a  keener  response  to  vision,  and  a  more  delicate 
touch.  The  blind  man  seems  to  hear  with 
the  rabbit  and  to  scent  with  the  hound.  The 
human  body  has  reserves  of  strength  and  the 
various  portions  of  the  mind  have  unused  re- 
sources which  are  rarely  called  into  full  activity. 
A  misfortune  in  the  loss  of  one  sense  or  limb, 
therefore,  often  produces  a  corresponding  offset 
in  the  development  of  others,  and  cases  are 
not  rare  where  the  greater  concentration  upon 
some  highly  perfected  ability  thus  secured  has 
proved  to  the  advantage  of  the  person  afflicted. 
A  starfish  deprived  of  one  of  his  tentacles  feels 
the  loss  so  keenly  that  he  perforce  must  grow 
another  or  lose  out  in  competition.  In  doing  so 
he  sometimes  replaces  the  missing  one  with  two 
new  ones.  A  lizard  can  replace  a  severed  tail. 

199 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

Some  of  the  lower  animals  can  even  duplicate 
sense  organs.  But  man,  with  a  more  varied 
equipment,  is  able  to  abandon  a  lost  member. 
He  does  grow  a  second,  and  sometimes  a  third 
set  of  teeth,  but  otherwise  he  merely  cuts  an 
impaired  organ  or  faculty  out  of  his  repertoire 
for  good,  and  draws  on  his  abundant  reserves. 

No  one  will  care  to  assert,  however,  that  the 
compensation  is  ever  complete.  A  better  use  of 
vision  will  not  altogether  console  for  deafness 
and  a  more  sensitive  touch  will  not  repair  all 
of  the  damage  of  lost  eyesight.  So  far  as  the 
body  is  minimized  by  impairment,  compensa- 
tions being  allowed  for,  by  so  much  is  the  mind 
restricted.  Enjoyment  and  understanding  of 
what  remains  may  be  keener  than  ever,  but 
intelligence  must  necessarily  range  over  a  more 
limited  field.  The  fact  that  consciousness  plays 
with  full  publicity,  so  to  speak,  upon  whatever 
is  being  performed  in  the  mind  at  any  given 
time,  serves  to  disguise  the  loss  of  any  portion 
of  the  great  unseen,  unconscious  areas. 

But,  aside  from  the  range  of  things  which  the 
mind  has  to  bring  into  consciousness,  it  is  sub- 
ject to  variations  in  two  other  respects,  in  which 

200 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

it  depends  upon  the  physical  equipment.  In 
the  first  place,  the  quality  of  feeling  of  con- 
sciousness may  alter,  and  in  the  second  place, 
the  vividness  or  acuteness  of  consciousness  may 
fluctuate.  The  first  difference  seems  to  depend 
in  part  upon  the  composition  of  the  blood, 
which  carries  at  different  times  different  chem- 
ical elements.  The  second  difference  depends 
upon  the  quantity  of  the  blood  furnished  to  the 
oigans.  Reduced  blood  supply  in  an  organ 
dhninishes  function  and  sensation.  Reduced 
blood  supply  in  the  brain  diminishes  conscious- 
ness. The  fact  that  the  quantity  of  blood 
in  the  brain  is  greatly  reduced  during  normal 
sleep  may  be  checked  by  observing  an  infant 
asleep.  Not  only  does  the  color  somewhat 
leave  the  cheeks,  but  the  fontanelle  —  the  soft 
circle  in  the  skull  —  which  in  waking  hours 
is  slightly  distended  with  the  pulse  of  blood, 
becomes  depressed  with  the  lapse  of  con- 
sciousness. 

Disease  and  efficiency.  From  these  facts  it 
becomes  clearer  why  an  illness  which  reduces  the 
quantity  of  the  blood  which  reaches  the  brain, 

20I 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

or  which  disturbs  the  chemical  composition  of 
the  blood  stream,  carries  with  it  mental  effects 
which  are  general  and  obvious.  Not  only  is  the 
mind  less  resourceful  —  as  in  the  case  of  the 
loss  of  an  organ  —  but  in  the  case  of  illness  it 
is  likely  to  be  less  happy,  and  less  "awake." 
The  mental  operations  are  subject  to  other  in- 
fluences than  the  usual  processes  of  suggestion 
and  stimulus,  and  cannot  be  depended  upon  for 
normal  work. 

The  successful  careers  of  such  men  as  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  and  Charles  Darwin,  known  to 
have  suffered  from  wretched  ill-health  most  of 
their  lives,  are  sometimes  referred  to  for  proof 
of  the  superiority  of  the  mind  to  the  trammels 
of  the  body.  A  close  examination  of  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  did  their  work,  how- 
ever, greatly  alters  the  force  of  the  argument. 
Stevenson,  for  instance,  adopted  literature  as  a 
life-work  after  he  had  been  compelled  by  his 
recurring  illness  to  give  up  engineering.  Des- 
ultory literary  composition  permitted  him  to 
pursue  good  health  in  whatever  climate  suited 
him,  and  to  do  bits  of  writing  on  days  when  he 
felt  exuberant.   He  began  his  work  when  he  was 

202 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

about  twenty-five,  and  it  was  ten  years  before 
he  was  able  to  support  himself  by  his  writing, 
and  not  until  he  was  thirty-seven  did  he  be- 
gin to  earn  a  good  living  at  writing.  Although 
constitutionally  weak,  he  was  by  no  means  al- 
ways ill.  His  lungs  failed  him  many  times,  but 
he  shook  off  disease  till  well  after  he  began  to 
write.  During  the  first  four  years  of  his  work, 
while  he  was  in  France,  his  health  was  "very 
passable,"  and  he  did  likewise  very  passable 
work  —  "Virginibus  Puerisque,"  "New  Ara- 
bian Nights,"  "Travels  with  a  Donkey,"  and 
"An  Inland  Voyage."  For  one  period  of  six 
years  he  did  not  have  to  spend  any  period  of 
twenty-four  hours  together  in  bed. 

His  letters  throughout  his  lifetime  are  full 
of  references  to  spurts  of  productivity  during 
which  he  was  happy  and  well,  following  barren 
weeks  of  suffering.  "My  health  has  turned  a 
corner,"  he  writes.  Or,  "He  kept  in  the  mean- 
time a  fair  level  of  health,"  says  his  friend, 
Sidney  Colvin. 

Nor  was  his  disease  —  tuberculosis  —  always 
devastating  in  its  physical  effects.  "  My  suffer- 
ings have  been  healthier  than  his.   [Comment- 

203 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

ing  on  a  "feverish"  friend.]  Mine  have  always 
been  a  choice  where  a  man  could  be  manly." 

But  when  he  was  actually  at  grips  with  in- 
fluenza, or  ague  fever,  or  hemorrhages,  his  work 
fell  off,  either  in  quality  or  in  output  altogether. 
The  pathos  of  Stevenson's  letters  is  the  evidence 
of  his  not  always  successful  efforts  to  ignore  the 
checks  and  restraints  which  his  physical  suffer- 
ings put  upon  his  intellectual  efforts. 

"As  for  my  poor  literature,  dear  Henley 
[Dec.  II,  '78],  you  must  expect  for  a  time  to 
find  it  worse  and  worse.  Perhaps,  if  God  favors 
me  a  little  at  last,  it  will  pick  up  again.  Now  1 
am  fighting,  with  both  hands,  a  hard  battle, 
and  my  work,  while  as  successful  as  I  can  make 
it,  will  probably  be  worth  two-pence." 

Again  he  wrote:  "Here's  December  gone, 
useless.  I  have  no  style  to  command  for  the 
moment." 

In  all  but  one  period,  his  work  was  produced 
in  times  of  fairly  robust  health.  During  one 
summer  in  Scotland,  when  he  felt  well  enough 
to  try  for  a  professorship  (which,  fortunately, 
he  did  not  get),  he  produced  much  of  "A 
Child's  Garden  of  Verses,"  "The  Meriy  Men," 

204 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

and  half  of  "Treasure  Island."  It  is  true  that 
at  Bournemouth,  England,  when  for  three 
years  he  was  mostly  in  bed,  he  also  wrote  "  Kid- 
napped," "Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde,"  and 
other  notable  pieces.  But  it  was  only  by  the 
careful  husbanding  of  his  strength,  which  kept 
him  even  from  talking  above  a  whisper,  that 
he  was  able  to  produce  at  all.  At  other  times, 
when  his  health  was  poor,  as  during  seven 
months  at  Saranac,  New  York,  he  wrote  prac- 
tically nothing.  And  in  the  last  two  years  of 
his  short  life,  illness  so  diminished  the  quality 
and  so  delayed  the  schedule  of  his  writing 
as  to  cause  him  anxiety  with  regard  to  his  in- 
come. 

Darwin,  too,  was  able  to  produce,  not  so 
much  in  spite  of  ill-health,  as  out  of  a  very 
carefully  preserved  but  very  narrow  margin  of 
good  health.  His  son  wrote  that  "for  nearly 
forty  years  he  never  knew  one  day  of  the  health 
of  ordinary  men."  In  view  of  this  statement 
his  respectably  large  production  of  scientific 
notes  and  writings  may  seem  surprising.  We 
have  to  observe,  however,  that,  while  ill-health 
kept  him  from  working  more  than  three  hours 

205 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

a  day,  he  did  secure  that  much  time  unfailingly. 
His  father's  wealth  had  prevented  his  ever 
having  to  work  for  a  living.  His  physical  con- 
dition prevented  his  wasting  his  efforts,  so 
that  he  rarely  went  out.  He  seldom  met  and 
scarcely  knew  the  scientific  men  of  his  day. 
His  loyal  and  most  devoted  wife,  who  in  his 
later  years  never  spent  a  night  away  from  home, 
preserved  his  life  from  anxieties  and  his  pro- 
gramme from  interruptions.  His  hours  of  pro- 
duction, therefore,  far  exceeded  the  time  which 
other  scientists  are  able  to  allot  to  similar  work, 
when  they  are  obliged  to  support  themselves 
by  lecturing  in  colleges,  interviewing  students, 
attending  society  meetings,  and  sweating  over 
miscellaneous  paper-work. 

Darwin,  furthermore,  was  far  from  being  an 
invalid.  His  daily  programme,  besides  writing, 
included  walking,  games  of  backgammon,  and 
other  pastimes  which  suggest  that  his  whole  life 
was  one  of  cheerful  convalescence. 

I  am  led  rather  to  conclude,  indeed,  that  ill- 
health  in  the  cases  of  Stevenson  and  Darwin 
helped  their  careers  by  holding  them  to  the 
work  in  which  they  made  their  fame,  but  that, 

206 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

if  their  maladies  had  been  less  benign,  their 
work  would  have  had  a  different  fate. 

For  other,  more  acute  or  more  deadly,  dis- 
eases have  more  pronounced  effects.  The  men- 
tal phases  of  many  common  ailments  are  so 
erratic  that  it  is  proper  to  study  and  treat  them 
under  the  headings  of  mental  diseases.  In 
uraemia  —  that  is,  the  failure  of  kidney  func- 
tion—  the  mental  effects,  aside  from  blurred 
vision,  may  be  confusion,  illusion  or  hallucina- 
tion, anxiety  and  depression. 

In  hyperthyroidism,  or  excess  of  the  secretion 
of  the  thyroid  gland  (exophthalmic  goitre), 
which  is  very  common,  there  are  emotional  dis- 
turbances, irritability,  loss  of  control,  excite- 
ment, and  tendency  to  anger  on  slight  provoca- 
tion. In  m3rxoedemia,  on  the  other  hand,  which 
is  due  to  thyroid  deficiency,  there  is  an  impair- 
ment of  the  mental  functions,  dullness  and  de- 
pression. 

Diabetes  may  produce  mental  effects  of 
irritability,  suspicion,  even  delusions.  Gout,  as 
is  well  known  wherever  gout  is  well  known, 
tends  to  make  the  victim  irascible.  And  the 
effects  of  typhoid  fever  or  pneumonia  so  often 

207 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

include  mental  prostration,  delusions,  ravings, 
and  hallucinations  that  these  mental  phases  of 
the  diseases  do  not  excite  surprise  when  they 
occur. 

By  far  the  larger  number  of  cases  of  depres- 
sion from  illness  are  temporary  or  intermittent 
in  their  effects.  Gastro-intestinal  disorders  in 
their  various  aspects  may  result  in  auto-intoxi- 
cation, which  is  just  another  name  for  "  feeling 
rotten"  or  "thick-headed."  Only  those  who 
have  suffered  the  periodic  ravages  of  sick  head- 
aches can  understand  the  mental  desolation, 
the  sensation  of  system  poisoning,  which  they 
produce.  Yet  the  sad  part  of  many  of  these 
troubles  is  that  they  do  not  put  the  victim  down 
and  out  and  send  him  to  bed,  where  he  would 
be  at  least  safe  from  accident,  but  seem  to  re- 
quire him  to  bear  up  bravely  and  go  through 
his  regular  tasks.  The  results  are  often  very 
costly. 

Under-nourishment  alone,  without  any  com- 
plications of  disease,  may  be  a  cause  of  ineffi- 
ciency, and  by  inference,  a  predisposition  to  ac- 
cident. An  experiment  in  giving  extra  nourish- 
ment to  girl  factory  workers  who  were  under 

208 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

weight,  and  otherwise  apparently  under-nour- 
ished, resulted,  in  a  twelve  weeks'  experiment, 
in  improvement  in  general  health  in  90  per  cent 
of  the  cases.  There  was  a  general  increase  in 
weight.  In  the  group  whose  production  effi- 
ciency could  be  measured,  twenty-two  gained 
in  production,  seven  showed  no  change,  and 
five  lost.  *'In  two  instances  the  gain  in  effi- 
ciency was  such  that  it  made  the  worker  the 
best  in  her  department. "  ^ 

How  we  injure  our  own  health.  It  should  not 
be  forgotten  that  exhaustion  or  low  vitality  as 
the  result  of  excesses,  drinking,  etc.,  produce 
mental  defects  that  are  hazardous.  The  term 
*'  hang-over"  is  descriptive  of  a  mental  state  as  a 
result  of  drinking.  Physiologists  declare  that  it 
is  possible  to  measure  in  terms  of  mental  and 
physical  work  the  loss  of  efficiency  which  re- 
sults the  following  day  from  drinking  a  single 
glass  of  wine  or  alcohol.  It  is  possible  that 
heavy  drinkers  compensate  a  little  on  these 
effects,  but,  certainly,  exhaustion  from  exces- 

^  William  Hall  Bunn,  M.D.,  "Studies  in  Undernourish- 
ment in  Industry-I,"  Journal  of  Industrial  Hygiene,  July, 
1922. 

209 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

sive  drinking  is  as  much  a  mental  as  a  physical 
condition. 

The  Harrison  Drug  Law  has  perhaps  di- 
minished the  number  of  people  addicted  to  the 
habit-forming  drugs,  such  as  opiates  and  co- 
caine, which  may  now  be  got  only  on  prescrip- 
tion ;  but  people  still  will  dose  themselves  with 
whatever  they  can  buy.  Many  come  to  depend 
upon  aspirin  and  other  coal-tar  drugs,  and  the 
increase  in  the  rate  of  use  of  them  suggests  that 
here  is  another  group  of  drugs  which  may  ulti- 
mately go  under  the  ban.  In  some  of  the 
Southern  mills  the  number  of  people  who  drink 
"dope"  beverages  to  excess  on  account  of  their 
drug  content  is  astonishing.  The  concoctions 
which  now  pass  for  whiskey  and  beer  should 
perhaps  be  considered  under  the  head  of  drugs 
rather  than  of  alcohol.  It  is  certain  that,  in 
some  industrial  communities,  the  net  effect  of 
"hooch"  is  nearly  as  harmful  as  licensed  drink- 
ing used  to  be. 

There  are  even  those  who  assert  that  smoking 
is  harmful.  Professional  men  have  often  found 
inordinate  smoking  to  have  a  depressing  effect 
and  gained  a  mental  lift  by  giving  it  up  all 

210 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

together.  Men  of  certain  temperaments  are 
perhaps  well  advised  to  avoid  tobacco.  On  the 
other  hand,  scientific  investigation  has  not 
proved  that,  in  general,  tobacco-smoking  is 
harmful.  Indeed,  some  evidence  is  more  than 
negative.  For  instance,  in  "Industrial  Hygi- 
ene" for  May,  1 921,  it  is  reported  that  among 
five  hundred  glassblowers  the  light  smokers 
produced  less  per  man  than  the  heavy  smokers. 

Plant  conditions  and  depression.  Everything 
which  we  have  cited  up  to  this  point  on  the 
mental  effects  of  physical  depression  has  had 
to  do  with  individual  cases.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  what  proof  has  been  found  that  general 
conditions  affecting  groups  of  people  in  fac- 
tories or  in  larger  communities  influence  the 
health,  and  in  turn  the  mental  output  of  the 
whole  groups.  Professor  Ellsworth  Hunting- 
ton,^ of  Yale,  has  traced  between  the  period  of 
1890  and  19 10  the  relation  between  health  and 
the  intelligence  of  the  whole  community.  He 
compares  the  number  of  persons  successfully 
passing  the  civil  service  examinations  with  the 

^  World  Power  and  Evolution.  New  Haven,  1920. 
211 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

rise  and  fall  of  the  death-rate  in  the  country. 
In  the  years  which  indicate  by  their  increased 
death-rate  that  conditions  were  not  favorable 
to  good  health,  there  was  a  smaller  number  of 
people  able  successfully  to  pass  the  examina- 
tions. When  health  seemed  to  improve,  a 
larger  number  of  people  went  on  the  eligible 
list. 

Apparently  the  greatest  single  influence  on 
the  general  health  is  the  matter  of  climate. 
Those  sections  of  the  world  which  are  con- 
sidered as  being  most  favored  in  terms  of  cli- 
mate have  been  mapped  out.  The  sections  in 
which  intelligence  is  most  active,  namely, 
Eastern  Central  United  States  and  Western 
and  Northern  Europe,  are  found  to  have  similar 
climatic  conditions.  Not  those  portions  of  the 
world  which  have  the  most  delightful  climates 
are  the  most  beneficial.  For  instance,  the  Ba- 
hama Islands  have  too  equable  a  weather  situa- 
tion. The  people  themselves  recognize  that 
they  are  more  inclined  to  be  lazy  and  inactive 
than  dwejlers  in  a  more  bracing  climate.  Some 
Bahama  parents  send  their  children  away  to 
the  United  States  or  England  to  live  because 

212 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

they  recognize  that  the  balmiest  climate  is  not 
favorable  to  mental  activity. 

Apparently  the  desirable  climate  is  one  that 
does  not  go  to  violent  extremes  of  cold  or  heat, 
but  which  nevertheless  varies  markedly.  As 
Professor  Huntington  sets  it  forth,  the  require- 
ments of  the  best  climate  are  cool,  but  not  cold, 
winters,  and  warm,  but  not  hot,  summers;  a 
fairly  high  humidity  except  in  the  warm  sea- 
sons; frequent  changes  in  weather.  He  cites 
the  fact  that  wet  Januarys  show  a  lower  death- 
rate  than  dry;  that  "cold-snaps"  in  the  winter, 
because  they  are  changes,  are  helpful.  The 
marked  increase  in  the  winter  death-rate, 
which  is  noted  in  every  chart,  is  due,  not  to  the 
conditions  of  outdoor  weather  so  much  as  to 
the  faulty  conditions  that  man  brings  about 
indoors,  as  a  result  of  the  fact  that  it  is  cold 
outside. 

To  make  this  latter  point  clearer;  if  we 
believe  the  experts  in  ventilation,  in  what  they 
say  about  the  requirements  of  good  atmos- 
pheric conditions  and  the  effects  that  bad  ven- 
tilation have  upon  human  efficiency  and  health, 
we  have  apparently  been  making  some  funda- 

213 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

mental  mistakes  in  the  management  of  our 
ventilation.  We  used  to  think  that  good  venti- 
lation was  a  matter  of  oxygen  supply.  We  knew 
that  we  breathe  air  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
oxygen  to  burn  in  our  tissues  and  breathe  out 
a  waste  gas  known  as  carbon  dioxide.  We 
thought,  therefore,  that  we  had  good  ventila- 
tion when  we  replenished  the  supply  of  oxygen 
and  turned  out  the  carbon  dioxide.  Now,  how- 
ever, we  know  that  good  ventilation  is  hardly  a 
chemical  matter  at  all,  but  chiefly  a  mechanical 
affair.  Almost  any  air  has  a  much  larger  quan- 
tity of  oxygen  in  it  than  we  shall  ever  need  and 
a  much  smaller  quantity  of  carbon  dioxide  than 
will  ever  prove  harmful.  The  reason  why  men 
suffer  from  such  "close"  air  as  we  find  in  the 
turret  of  a  battleship  or  in  a  submarine  is  the 
fact  that  the  air  is  either  too  hot  or  too  dry  or 
too  still.  The  oxygen  in  such  a  place  is  suffi- 
cient. Indeed,  there  could,  theoretically,  be 
too  much  oxygen.  An  atmosphere  of  loo  per 
cent  oxygen  would  be  unsuitable  to  man's  re- 
quirements because  a  certain  amount  of  other 
gases  are  necessary  to  stimulate  respiration. 
Normal  air  contains  21  per  cent  oxygen,  but 
214 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

man  does  not  become  uncomfortable  until 
the  oxygen  drops  to  lo  per  cent.  A  candle  goes 
out  at  15  per  cent,  so  that  we  see,  if  a  candle 
will  burn  in  a  room,  man  has  a  comfortable 
amount  of  oxygen.  Furthermore,  it  takes  more 
than  one  hundred  times  as  much  carbon  di- 
oxide as  the  air  normally  contains,  to  kill  a 
man. 

The  principal  defect  of  most  ventilation  is 
the  fact  that  the  air  is  too  dry.  Cold  air  con- 
tains less  moisture  than  hot.  In  winter,  there- 
fore, the  air  outside  is  normally  drier  than  in 
summer,  but  we  take  outside  air  into  a  room 
and  heat  it  up  to  more  than  summer  tem- 
perature, with  the  result  that  it  is  relatively 
still  drier.  Air,  which  should  contain  for  our 
best  health  75  per  cent  of  such  moisture  as  it 
can  carry,  is  usually  found  in  the  winter  to 
contain  only  10  to  20  per  cent.  This  is  as 
dry  as  a  desert,  and  the  results  are  colds,  dry, 
chapped  skin,  nervousness,  and  apparent  fa- 
tigue. 

Dry  air  chills  us  more  easily  than  moist  air; 
therefore,  in  these  circumstances  we  have  to 
heat  our  rooms  to  a  degree  which  is  not  condu- 

215 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

cive  to  the  best  health.  The  temperature 
should  be  around  65°  in  air  properly  moist. 
Dry,  it  has  to  be  above  70°  to  feel  comfortable. 
Proper  atmospheric  conditions  also  depend 
upon  the  air's  being  somewhat  in  motion,  and 
a  proper  stimulation  to  the  pores  of  the  skin  re- 
quires variation  in  temperature  from  time  to 
time. 

When  the  usual  faulty  conditions  obtain,  a 
positive  loss  in  mental  efficiency  results,  and 
when  they  are  remedied,  the  mind  itself,  as  well 
as  the  body,  works  most  satisfactorily. 

C.  S.  Myers,  in  his  book  on  "Mind  and 
Work,"  ^  quotes  the  results  on  experiments 
upon  animals  and  their  ability  to  work  at  differ- 
ent temperatures  and  at  different  relative  hu- 
midities. Counting  the  work  done  at  69°  F. 
and  52  per  cent  relative  humidity  as  100  units, 
it  was  found  that  at  the  less  desirable  tempera- 
ture of  75°  with  a  relative  humidity  of  70  per 
cent,  85  units  of  work  were  accomplished.  At 
the  still  more  undesirable  temperature  of  91° 
with  a  relative  humidity  of  90  per  cent,  only 
76  units  of  work  were  accomplished.  He  also 

*  New  York,  1921, 
216 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

cites  an  investigation  in  a  tinplate  industry  in 
which  it  was  declared  that,  by  improving  ven- 
tilation, managers  were  able  to  secure  12  per 
cent  more  output. 

Of  course,  it  is  not  possible  to  tell  how  many 
accidents  result  from  bad  ventilation  nor  how 
many  are  prevented  by  improving  it.  Relative 
production  is  an  indication,  however,  of  mental 
efficiency. 

We  can  get  the  same  measure  of  the  effect  of 
good  or  poor  illumination  and  draw  inferences 
as  to  the  accident  hazard.  When  we  learn,  for 
instance,  that  by  changing  the  illumination  of  a 
plant  from  4000  to  12,000-foot  candles,  and  by 
making  no  other  change,  production  was  in- 
creased from  8  to  27  per  cent  in  various  depart- 
ments, we  can  surmise  a  corresponding  mental 
change. 

Indeed,  the  purely  mental  effects  of  different 
degrees  of  illumination  have  been  studied  by 
Martha  Elliott.  In  terms  of  the  variation  in 
reaction  times  she  shows  that  mental  efficiency 
increases  rapidly  for  each  increase  in  illumina- 
tion up  to  ten-foot  candles,  and  more  slowly 
beyond  that.  The  variation  between  five  and 

217 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

ten-foot  candles  is  the  ratio  between  92  and  97.^ 
The  kind  of  light,  too,  affects  speed  of  reaction 
times  so  that,  at  the  ten-foot  candles,  the  mo- 
tions in  unit-time  possible  under  Cooper-Hewitt 
light  will  be  107  when  under  tungsten  light  of 
the  same  intensity  only  97  motions  are  made. 
Where  freedom  from  accident  is  just  obtained 
by  promptness  of  reaction,  there  is  a  certain 
range  of  cases  in  which  an  accident  would  hap- 
pen at  five  candle-power  of  illumination,  or 
under  tungsten  light,  and  would  be  avoided  by 
more  adequate  lighting. 

There  is,  however,  a  more  direct  connection 
between  illumination  and  accidents.  In  the 
United  States  alone  there  are  15,000  deaths  per 
year  caused  by  falls.  The  connection  between 
this  and  illumination  is  traced  in  the  fact  that 
there  are  in  general  29  per  cent  more  accidents 
at  night  than  on  day  shifts  and  that  there  are 
71  per  cent  more  falls  at  night.  S.  C.  Dorn,  in 
"Nation's  Health"  for  August  15,  192 1,  said 
that  one  insurance  company,  in  an  analysis  of 

*  "  Comparative  Cognitive  Reaction  Time  with  Lights 
of  Different  Spectral  Character  and  at  Different  Intensities 
of  Illumination,"  American  Journal  oj  Psychology,  January, 
1922. 

218 


THE  PHYSICAL  MIND 

91,000  accidents,  ascribed  15  per  cent  of  them 
to  poor  lighting,  and  another  company  gave 
23.8  per  cent  of  the  accidents  as  the  result  of 
faulty  illumination. 

The  influence  of  illumination  may  not  always 
be  direct  —  through  affecting  the  ability  of  the 
worker  to  see  where  he  is  going;  it  may  also  be 
indirect  through  its  effects  on  the  eyes.  Glare 
will  often  produce  a  mental  state  unfavorable 
to  work,  or  eye-strain  may  involve  nervous 
tension  which  results  in  accident. 

There  are,  of  course,  other  physical  condi- 
tions which  produce  somewhat  the  same  ef- 
fects and  involve  the  same  accident  hazards 
that  ventilation  and  illumination  do.  In  one 
case,  it  may  be  lack  of  good  drinking-water;  in 
another,  it  may  be  simply  the  depressing  effect 
of  ugliness  or  noise ;  the  lack  of  a  decent  place 
in  which  to  eat.  Some  men,  at  least,  are  affected 
by  such  things. 

Safety  engineers,  therefore,  who  desire  to 
consider  more  than  the  mere  mechanical  aspects 
of  accident  prevention,  will  look  first  to  the 
general  matters  of  lighting,  ventilation,  and 
other  plant  conditions  which  affect  the  physical 

219 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

conditions  of  whole  groups  of  workers.  Beyond 
that,  they  will  cooperate  with  the  medical  de- 
partments in  dealing  with  individual  illnesses 
on  the  ground  that  sick  men  are  more  likely  to 
get  hurt  than  the  robust  workers. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  TIRED  MIND 

Misleading  statistics.  Do  weary,  overworked 
men  have  more  accidents  than  workmen  who 
are  fresh  and  "full  of  pep"?  One  wants  to  say 
yes.  It  is  easy  to  believe  that  a  tired  mind  is  an 
absent  mind,  and  therefore  susceptible  to  acci- 
dent. One  wants  to  find  figures  to  prove  it; 
and,  indeed,  the  persistent  seeker  can  find  them, 
if  he  uses  judicious  selection  and  will  ignore 
contradictory  material.  Almost  all  tables  show- 
ing the  hours  of  the  day  on  which  accidents 
occur  show  a  rising  curve  toward  the  end  of 
morning  and  afternoon  sessions.  Surely  there 's 
ample  proof  that  tired  men  get  hurt ! 

But  there  are  some  questions  in  industry  as 
well  as  in  other  fields  where  it  is  better  to  hang 
on  to  common-sense  beliefs  until  we  can  be  sure 
that  apparent  statistics  really  furnish  the  an- 
swers. I  am  told  that,  at  the  same  time  as  the 
public-health  work  in  the  town  of  Brookline  has 
improved,  and  that  particularly  while  the  ef- 

221 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

forts  to  reduce  deaths  of  babies  by  maternity 
education,  prenatal  care,  better  milk  supply, 
etc.,  have  been  redoubled,  the  infant  mortality 
rate  in  that  favored  town  has  unexpectedly  in- 
creased. If  we  were  to  be  guided  by  statistics 
alone,  we  should  be  forced  to  give  up  all  such 
public  hygiene.  But  our  common  sense  tells  us 
that  other  factors  in  this  situation  are  at  work 
harder  than  the  doctors,  and  that  the  statistics 
are  influenced  by  some  things  that  we  have  not 
taken  account  of.  So  it  is  with  the  figures  on 
the  relationship  between  fatigue  and  accidents. 
It  has  been  possible  to  make  up  all  sorts  of  ta- 
bles for  this  relationship,  but  too  many  ele- 
ments are  elusive,  and  too  many  factors  affect 
the  results,  to  enable  us  to  rely  upon  figures 
alone. 

For  some  reputable  accident  figures  do  not 
exactly  correspond  to  our  feeling  about  the 
danger  of  fatigue.  On  the  one  hand,  F.  S.  Lee, 
in  a  book  on  "The  Human  Machine  and  Indus- 
trial Efficiency,"  says:  "Most  of  the  tabula- 
tions that  have  been  made  agree  in  showing 
that  as  output  diminishes  in  each  spell,  coinci- 
dent with  the  progress  of  fatigue,  accidents 

222 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

increase  in  number  —  the  curve  gradually  rises 
through  the  spell."  On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  P.  S. 
Florence  has  charted  industrial  accidents  in 
certain  factories  for  six  months  according  to  the 
hour  of  the  day  at  which  they  occurred,  and, 
while  there  was  a  rising  curve  of  accidents  both 
morning  and  afternoon,  production  did  not  fall 
off  in  the  same  way.  The  relation  of  the  in- 
crease of  accidents  to  fatigue  was  by  no  means 
made    clear.    Furthermore,   at   abulation    by 
Dr.  A.  F.  Stanley  Kent,  an  English  investiga-" 
tor,  showed  that  accidents  increased  as  produc-  ^ 
tion  increased  in  the  morning  and  that  accidents  j 
still  increased  in  the  afternoon  as  production  , 
decreased.  Where  do  such  figures  get  us  ? 

Some  light  on  these  inconclusive  results  is 
furnished  by  Dr.  Bernard  J.  Newman,  of  the 
United  States  Public  Health  Service.  He  says 
that  both  accidents  and  production  decrease  at 
the  very  close  of  the  day,  and  the  decline  in  the 
accident  rate  does  not  keep  pace  with  the  de- 
cline of  production.  The  number  of  accidents 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  pieces  produced 
is  greater  in  the  last  hour  than  in  the  previous 
hours.  Furthermore,  Dr.  Newman  has  collected 

223 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

figures  which  seem  to  show  that  piece-workers 
are  more  liable  to  accidents  than  those  on  day 
work,  and  inasmuch  as  piece-workers  are  pre- 
sumed to  extend  themselves  more,  and  some- 
times greatly  fatigue  themselves,  it  is  con- 
sidered safe  to  say  that  such  figures  indicate  a 
relation  between  fatigue  and  increased  acci- 
dents. 

For  my  own  part,  however,  I  prefer  to  treat 
skeptically  all  statistics  in  the  matter  of  fatigue. 
What  we  begin  to  know  about  this  subject  from 
the  point  of  view  of  physiology  gives  rise  to 
a  doubt  whether  the  effects  of  fatigue  would 
show  up  directly  in  figures.  Indeed,  I  question 
whether  true  fatigue,  chiefly,  is  involved  in  the 
tables  usually  published.  In  the  first  place,  Lee 
and  Florence  and  Kent  seem  to  have  assumed 
that  decrease  in  production  is  proportional  to 
accumulation  of  fatigue,  and  that  increased 
production  indicates  freedom  from  fatigue.  I 
am  not  so  sure  that  output  measures  fatigue. 
It  is  not  safe  to  assume  in  advance  that,  if  the 
worker  experiences  a  feeling  of  fatigue  as  the 
day  wears  on,  it  is  due  to  the  quantity  of  work 
he  is  turning  out.  It  is  not  safe  to  assume,  even, 

224 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

because  the  number  of  accidents  increases,  and 
the  feeling  of  fatigue  increases  at  the  same  time, 
as  the  day  wears  on,  that,  therefore,  it  is  over- 
work which  has  produced  weariness  and  acci- 
dents, in  turn.  All  these  perhaps  surprising 
statements  grow  out  of  the  peculiar  nature  of 
fatigue  as  revealed  in  the  light  of  recent  studies. 

Before  arguing  anything  about  fatigue,  there- 
fore, let  us  make  sure  at  the  start  that  we  have 
not  been  making  false  assumptions  about  it. 
We  are  likely  to  think  of  it  as  "that  tired  feel- 
ing." Now,  while  it  is  all  right,  in  conversation, 
to  refer  to  a  feeling  of  weariness  as  fatigue,  a 
physiologist  is  not  able  to  get  anywhere  with 
that  idea.  He  knows  that  "that  tired  feeling" 
may  be  most  acute  at  the  beginning  of  the  spell 
of  work,  and  wear  away  as  one  warms  up.  He 
knows,  again,  that  a  worker  may  have  used  up 
nearly  all  of  his  energy  and  be  approaching  the 
point  of  collapse  —  as  many  an  oarsman  in  a 
boat-race  —  and  still  at  the  given  moment  be 
aware  of  no  fatigue,  and  actually  be  producing 
at  a  high  rate  of  efficiency.  "That  tired  feel>.« 
ing,"  therefore,  is  no  definition  at  all  of  fatigue. 

Since  it  is  usually  work  which  results  in  that 

225 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

tired  feeling,  it  is  often  assumed  that  expend- 
ing a  given  number  of  foot-pounds  of  energy 
will  produce  it.  But  we  cannot  get  very  far 
with  any  discussion  of  fatigue  which  assumes 
that  it  is  uniformly  proportional  to  any  given 
quantity  of  work.  Two  men  of  the  same 
strength  and  general  state  of  health  will  work 
at  very  different  rates  of  speed  at  the  same  task 
and  come  through  to  the  end  of  the  day  each  in 
quite  different  condition,  relative  to  reserve 
energy.  One  may  produce  little  and  feel  quite 
done  up  at  the  end  of  the  day;  the  other  may 
produce  much  and  maintain  his  rate  of  produc- 
tion to  the  close  without  excessive  weariness. 
Again,  the  same  man,  doing  the  same  task  on 
two  successive  days,  will  vary  markedly  in  his 
ability  to  produce  and  his  ability  to  stand  the 
strain  of  his  job.  Such  facts  are  so  obvious  from 
our  own  experience  that  it  will  easily  be  ad- 
mitted that  fatigue  has  no  direct  relation  to  the 
quantity  of  work  performed. 

Begging  the  question  as  to  how  much  work 
will  produce  fatigue,  scientists  are  usually  in 
accord  in  assuming  that  fatigue  is  indicated  by 
a  reduced  capacity  for  further  work,  and  vice 

226 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

versa.  But  we  should  not  even  be  too  hasty  in 
calling  fatigue  a  diminished  power  to  produce 
work.  We  have  to  hedge  that  about  with  ex- 
ceptions and  reservations,  too.  We  have  all  ex- 
perienced the  surprise  of  going  home  from  our 
labors  completely  tired  out  and  finding  that  we 
can  play  a  game  of  baseball  before  dinner,  or 
going  out  for  the  evening  and  dancing  until 
midnight  without  any  weariness  to  complain  of. 
We  may  even  have  experienced  the  bracing 
effect  upon  our  work,  when,  although  we  seem 
to  be  all  wearied  out,  we  hear  some  particularly 
good  piece  of  news.  And  we  have  seen  the  im- 
mediately tiring  effect  of  an  unpleasant  an- 
nouncement. Dr.  Walter  Dill  Scott  has  de- 
scribed the  results  of  experiments  with  athletes 
on  rowing  machines  who  appear  to  be  tired  out 
by  a  given  quantity  of  work,  but  who  are  able 
measurably  to  increase  their  efforts  in  response 
to  the  urgings  of  their  coaches,  stimulating 
them  by  mere  word  of  mouth.  We  have  seen 
how  football  teams  may  leave  the  field  at  the 
close  of  the  first  half,  soundly  whipped,  having 
lost  all  of  their  gimp,  only  to  come  back  the 
second  half  full  of  steam,  when  their  coaches 

227 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

in  the  interval   have  berated  them  roundly. 

Nor  are  these  mental  excitements  the  only- 
means  of  dissipating  fatigue.  It  is  the  practice 
in  a  good  many  factories  to  permit  lunch  carts 
to  pass  around  the  departments  in  the  middle  of 
the  morning  or  the  middle  of  the  afternoon, 
because  it  has  been  found  that  a  bite  of  lunch 
stay^  the  flagging  energies  and  produces  in- 
creased output.  It  was  the  Yale  football  team 
which  for  a  number  of  years  issued  sugar  rations 
to  its  players  because  of  the  discovery  that 
sugar  very  quickly  gets  into  the  energy-produc- 
ing system.  Of  late  years  the  Harvard  team 
also  has  been  issuing  sugar  rations  to  its  play- 
ers, and  the  results  are  said  to  be  noticeable. 

Tests  with  a  machine  known  as  an  "ergo- 
graph,"  which  measures  the  expenditure  of 
energy  in  a  selected  muscle  or  set  of  muscles, 
reveal  to  us  further  reasons  why  it  is  not  pre- 
cisely correct  to  refer  to  fatigue  as  a  diminished 
power  to  produce  work.  For  instance,  a  man 
tested  for  how  many  times  he  can  pull  a  certain 
weight  with  one  finger  may  slow  up  or  stop  at 
a  certain  weight  and  then  start  out  with  a 
slightly  lower  weight  apparently  quite  fresh. 

228 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

After  a  time  a  certain  weight  may  be  found 
which  he  will  be  able  to  lift  with  the  same 
finger  for  a  practically  indefinite  time.  Again, 
if  the  same  weight  be  used,  an  interval  of  rest 
may  enable  the  subject  to  resume  work  with 
the  same  vigor  as  before,  and  experiment  will 
show  that  there  is  some  length  of  rest  period  or 
some  rate  of  recurring  rest  periods  which  will 
enable  the  subject  to  resume  work  at  the  same 
rate  of  output  for  a  practically  indefinite  time. 
Experiments  with  excised  muscles  of  frogs 
showed  that  power  to  contract  will  diminish 
after  a  certain  time,  but  that  if  the  waste  prod- 
ucts of  the  muscle  —  chiefly  the  lactic  acid  — 
which  are  produced  as  the  result  of  the  con- 
sumption of  energy  are  washed  away  or  neu- 
tralized chemically,  the  muscle  is  able  to  con- 
tinue work  for  a  far  longer  period. 

Such  examples  as  these  indicate  that  it  is  not 
sufficient  to  define  fatigue  as  a  diminished 
power  to  produce  work.  That  definition  would 
lead  us  to  assume  that,  whenever  in  any  given 
circumstance  such  a  diminished  power  showed 
up,  we  had  a  condition  of  fatigue,  and  that  the 
only  safe  thing  to  do  was  to  stop  work.  But  our 

229 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

examples  show  us,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
amount  of  work  that  can  be  done  in  the  first 
place  depends  upon  the  initial  condition  of  the 
worker,  and  is  affected  beyond  that  by  rest 
periods,  by  variation  in  the  load,  by  nourish- 
ment, by  elimination  of  waste  products,  and 
finally,  and  most  important,  by  state  of  mind. 
We  are  not  justified  in  practical  conditions, 
then  —  particularly  in  industry,  and  more 
especially  in  our  consideration  of  accident 
hazards  —  in  calling  either  a  feeling  of  weari- 
ness, or  a  low  rate  of  output,  fatigue.  Statistics 
which  are  based  on  so  superficial  a  view  are 
valueless. 

A  serviceable  description  of  fatigue  would 
define  it  as  a  condition  of  weakness  and  torpor, 
accompanied  by  a  feeling  of  lassitude,  due  to  a 
general  exhaustion  of  available  bodily  energy 
in  the  progress  of  exertion.  Weariness  that  is 
due  to  ill-health  or  lack  of  normal  energy,  to 
begin  with,  is  not  fatigue,  because  there  has 
been  no  exhaustion  due  to  work.  The  fatigue  of 
a  single  muscle  by  specialized  work  is,  of  course, 
possible,  but  unless  general  bodily  energy  is 
used  up  we  should  refer  to  muscle  strain,  for  the 

230 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

breakdown  of  a  single  muscle  must  be  distin- 
guished, if  only  for  common  convenience,  from 
a  general  condition  of  the  whole  system.  Fur- 
thermore, apparent  fatigue  that  may  be  over- 
come immediately  by  eating  a  lump  of  sugar, 
listening  to  a  martial  air,  or  hearing  a  phrase 
like  "Beyond  the  Alps  lies  Italy!"  is  not  to  be 
called  fatigue.  If  there  is  bodily  energy  which 
may  be  so  easily  tapped  by  turning  on  a  new 
faucet,  then  we  have  not  used  up  the  available 
bodily  energy. 

We  ought  strictly  to  limit  our  use  of  the  term , 
to  that  complete  exhaustion  following  exertion 
when  all  further  normal  stimulation  is  futile  | 
and  only  a  new  digestive  cycle  and  a  night's  i 
sleep  will  restore  the  energies.  If  we  don't  limit 
the  term  "  fatigue  "  to  this  condition,  which  the 
working  part  of  mankind  has  known  so  many 
million  of  evenings  since  the  dawn  of  time, 
what  name  shall  we  find  for  that  condition  ? 

There  is  a  fairly  simple  physiological  explana- 
tion of  fatigue.  All  bodily  work  is  produced  by 
contracting  muscles.  To  contract  at  all,  a  mus- 
cle burns  up  its  own  tissue  in  the  presence  of 
oxygen  taken  from  the  blood.  To  continue  the 

231 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

process  of  contraction,  the  waste  products  of 
the  burning  —  chiefly  lactic  acid  —  must  be 
eliminated,  new  tissue  created,  and  new  oxygen 
brought  to  the  point  of  action.  Blood  must 
circulate  to  bring  up  food  and  oxygen  and  take 
away  the  lactic  acid.  The  waste  product,  how- 
ever, easily  accumulates  and  soon  poisons  the 
nerves  which  give  orders  to  the  muscle.  Usu- 
ally, therefore,  further  muscular  action  is  "in- 
hibited"; that  is,  halted  by  a  kind  of  nerve 
paralysis  before  the  muscle  is  all  used  up.  An 
increased  supply  of  digested  food,  especially 
sugar,  the  greatest  energy-producing  material 
in  the  blood,  will  carry  on  the  combustion  and 
either  overcome  the  inhibition  or  an  increased 
circulation  will  carry  away  the  excess  lactic 
acid.  This  increased  circulation  can  be  secured 
by  increasing  mental  excitement.  The  mental 
excitement  produces  its  efi^ects  by  causing  the 
suprarenal  glands  to  throw  out  into  the  blood  a 
stimulant  called  "adrenin,"  which  "increases 
the  contraction  of  the  small  arteries,  renders 
unusually  forcible  the  heart  beat,  and  conse- 
quently  raises  arterial   pressure."  ^  Anything 

'  Cannon,  Bodily  Changes,  p.  95. 
232 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

that  excites  the  mind,  whether  pleasure  or  fear, 
joy  or  anger,  music,  noises,  beauty  or  pain,  will 
cause  this  stimulating  effect. 

Once  the  system  becomes  loaded  up  with  the 
waste  product  of  exertion,  however,  once  the 
blood  itself  is  clogged,  the  heart  itself  tired, 
the  nervous  system's  capacity  for  excitement 
dulled,  and  the  food  supply  exhausted,  then  we 
have  a  true  condition  of  general  fatigue,  requir- 
ing a  new  cycle  of  digestion  and  elimination  and 
a  full  night's  rest,  or  even  a  vacation. 

Energy  blockade  and  industrial  strain.  With 
that  picture  in  mind,  can  we  justly  say  that  the 
rising  accident  rate  during  the  day  is  due  to 
fatigue?  If  so,  how  does  it  happen  that  produc- 
tion so  often  also  increases  at  the  same  time? 
And  how  does  it  happen  that  the  worker  is  so 
often  fresh  for  new  tasks  at  the  end  of  the  day? 

The  truth  is,  when  the  workman  thinks  he  is 
tired,  the  old  man  has  a  lot  of  life  in  him  yet. 
The  situation  simply  has  n't  been  right  to 
quicken  him  further.  Indeed,  what  is  there 
about  the  conditions  of  the  average  factory  to 
make  a  fellow  want  to  give  his  energy  until  it 

233 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

hurts?  A  woman  may  stand  at  a  loom  or  be- 
hind a  dry-goods  counter  perched  up  on  high 
heels  for  eight  hours  in  an  unnatural  strain,  till 
she  feels  about  ready  to  drop,  but  if  she  is  at 
all  healthy,  she  can  dance  the  cramp  out  of  her 
muscles  in  fifteen  minutes  after  work.  A  ma- 
chine tender  may  become  so  sick  of  his  job  that 
for  a  work-off  he  begins  throwing  monkey 
wrenches  at  his  neighbor.  (A  certain  propor- 
tion of  our  accidents  —  three  per  cent  —  in  a 
group  of  eight  mills  is  due  to  horseplay,  grow- 
ing, I  think,  out  of  boredom.)  But,  surely,  such 
extra  effort  reveals  a  surplus  of  pent-up  energy 
rather  than  over-exertion. 

The  tragedy  and  reproach  of  modern  in- 
dustry is  that  workers  don't  get  fatigued 
enough.  Of  course  we  know  of  the  exceptions. 
The  steel  workers  at  heavy,  back-breaking 
labor,  twelve  hours  a  day,  seven  days  a  week, 
that  Whiting  Williams  and  Horace  Drury 
write  about;  miners,  picking  coals  in  narrow 
seams  while  balanced  upside  down  on  the  points 
of  their  Davy  lamps;  the  ship's  stokers  and 
railroad  firemen,  the  ditch-diggers,  the  caisson 
workers,  many  others,  perhaps,  experience  that 

234 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

general,  complete,  and  unshakable  exhaustion 
at  the  end  of  the  day's  labor  which,  at  best, 
only  a  good  night's  rest  will  overcome.  I  have 
seen  the  three-shift  men  of  the  Ford  Motor 
Company  of  Detroit  going  home  after  a  day's 
work  on  those  endless  chains  of  flivvers,  and, 
of  a  whole  greasy  street-car  load  of  them, 
not  two  of  them  but  were  sound  asleep  —  done 
up.  There's  fatigue;  perhaps  unhealthy  fa- 
tigue ! 

Even  these  Ford  workers  may  have  time  to 
recuperate  daily  owing  to  the  eight-hour  day. 
It  is  a  special  case  which  we  may  leave  in  doubt 
here.  There  are  other  workers,  however,  who 
are  also  called  upon  to  expend  energy  daily  to 
the  point  of  a  general  let-down,  and  the  need 
of  much  food  and  sleep  for  recuperation,  who, 
as  a  matter  of  common  knowledge,  neverthe- 
less wax  healthy.  There  's  the  farmhand,  for 
instance.  When  he  tucks  himself  into  bed  at 
night,  he  can  barely  remember  the  dawn  when 
he  set  out  on  his  rounds,  shucking  countless  ears 
of  corn  for  a  drove  of  horses,  feeding  the  hogs 
and  milking  the  cows,  by  way  of  light  chores 
before  breakfast.  He  has  walked  behind  the 

235 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

plough  over  acres  of  ground  ninety-nine  times, 
more  or  less,  before  noon,  and  as  much  more 
before  supper.  And  yet,  by  means  of  taking  in 
countless  calories  of  food,  and  copious  drafts  of 
fresh  air  and  spring  water,  he  comes  to  the  end 
of  his  day's  labor,  tired  out,  but  capable  of  that 
marvelous,  refreshing  sleep  which  we  all  envy. 
The  logger,  swinging  his  axe  all  day  long,  like 
the  Australian  woodchoppers  in  the  circus,  may 
get  good  and  ready  for  sleep  as  the  result  of  his 
labors.  And  yet,  through  the  winter  he  stores 
up  energy,  as  he  saves  his  money,  at  s-uch  a  rate 
that  he  has  to  come  to  town  in  the  spring  for  a 
"grand  bust"  to  get  rid  of  the  surplus  accumu- 
lation of  both. 

I  have  seen  heavy  iron  molders  whom  I  en- 
vied for  their  thundering  hard  labor.  The  way 
they  come  to  toss  about  huge  flasks  and  pound 
sand  like  drop  forges ;  the  way  they  handle  big 
ladles  of  hot  metal  and  knock  heavy  castings 
out  of  a  mold,  is  fine  to  see.  They  are  profane 
and  dirty  and  stinking  with  sweat,  but  they  ask 
no  odds  in  a  physical  contest.  No  one  who  sees 
them  gorging  their  noon  lunch  of  a  loaf  of  bread 
and  a  whole  skin  of  bologna,  no  one  who  sees 

236 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

them  piling  rambunctiously  into  the  locker- 
rooms  at  night  like  a  crowd  of  boys,  can  worry 
very  much  about  general  fatigue  as  a  problem 
of  industry. 

But,  taking  America's  workers  in  the  aggre- 
gate, trade  by  trade  and  occupation  by  occupa- 
tion, the  number  whose  work  uses  up  daily  the 
whole  of  their  available  energy-output  is  small. 
The  number  whose  work  cramps  and  thwarts 
them  is  far  more  numerous.  The  numbers  who 
must  repress  and  contain  animal  spirits  and 
the  impulse  for  physical  effort  while  focusing 
on  seme  trivial  motions  is  appalling.  Single 
operations  —  such  as  folding  handkerchiefs,  in- 
specting buttons,  picking  out  knots  in  cloth, 
sewing  on  pockets,  screwing  in  mainsprings  in 
watches,  wrapping  up  bars  of  soap,  and  the 
like,  which  constitute  so  large  a  proportion  of 
the  routine  of  factory  work  —  cannot  possibly 
give  outlet  to  the  energies  that  are  crowding  for 
expression  in  every  normal  person.  Single  mus- 
cles may  be  cramped  or  strained,  particularly 
during  the  learning  period,  but  such  unbalanced 
muscle  demands  do  not  produce  genuine  fa- 
tigue. Or  the  worker  may  be  required  to  mis- 

237 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

apply  part  of  his  energy  in  "defense  reactions," 
as  in  the  case  of  girls  perched  on  unscientific 
stools,  and  wasting  efforts  to  keep  their  balance 
or  find  a  bearable  posture  by  constant  shift  of 
position.  But  local  weariness  from  such  efforts 
is  not  fatigue. 

Any  one  has  a  right  to  say  that  he  is  tired  and 
be  the  judge  of  whether  he  is  telling  the  truth 
or  not.  But  when  he  says  he  is  "fatigued,"  he 
is  using  a  term  that  belongs  to  those  with  special 
knowledge.  The  little  office  girl  pounding  the 
typewriter  all  day  long  may  feel  tired,  but  she 
is  probably  not  fatigued;  on  the  contrary,  she 
may  be  suffering  from  too  little  normal  energy 
consumption.  Her  impulses  sometimes  find 
outlet  in  unpleasant  or  wasteful  ways  —  quar- 
reling, "dolling  up,"  dawdling  over  her  work, 
or  spending  too  many  evenings  at  the  dance 
halls.  But  at  least  in  such  ways  she  may  remain 
healthy. 

If  she  is  more  conscientious,  however,  and 
applies  herself  diligently  to  her  work  during  the 
day  and  spends  her  evenings  quietly  at  home, 
she  may  develop  insomnia,  nervous  troubles, 
indigestion,  even  tuberculosis,  as  the  result  of 

238 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

not  having  the  type  of  work  which  induces 
daily  a  normal  general  fatigue. 

The  average  factory  worker  is  not  a  farmer, 
a  logger,  or  an  iron  molder,  but  something  more 
like  a  cross-legged  needle-worker,  moving  his 
fingers  from  here  to  here,  hour  by  hour,  and 
straining  his  eyes  over  invisible  stitches.  The 
physical  result  of  his  work  is  not  fatigue,  but 
strain  and  ill-health.  Through  the  day  his  en- 
ergies are  used  up  in  the  internal  combustion 
of  emotionalism,  indigestion,  and  nervous 
twitching;  through  the  years  his  cheated  mus- 
cles atrophy  and  his  vital  organs  gradually  lose 
their  power  to  generate  energy.  He  becomes 
sluggish,  depressed,  stupid,  old.  He  tires  at 
slight  exertion,  and  his  day's  work  may,  after  a 
time,  actually  fatigue  him,  because  he  may 
generate  so  little  energy  that  even  his  slight 
exertions  exhaust  the  daily  supply.  But  he  tires 
as  a  sick  man  tires,  and  we  are  not  well  advised 
to  consider  his  as  a  condition  of  fatigue,  but  of 
anaemia. 

Nearly  ninety  per  cent  of  the  illnesses  among 
factory  people,  as  shown  by  many  figures  in 
my  possession,  are  due  to  indigestion,  infec- 

239      ^ 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

tions  of  the  nose  and  throat,  and  other  troubles 
due  to  too  little  physical  activity.  Sluggish  cir- 
culation, dissipating  energies,  and  comparative 
over-eating,  are  the  causes.  Many  a  worker 
never  develops  a  good  natural  hunger  from  one 
year's  end  to  another.  Most  of  them  have  to 
wait  till  dog-days  before  getting  up  a  "good 
sweat."  The  Life  Extension  Institute  reports 
that,  while  the  great  plagues  such  as  tubercu- 
losis, smallpox,  and  yellow  fever  are  being  over- 
come, the  so-called  "degenerative"  diseases, 
due  to  defective  organs,  heart,  stomach,  and 
lungs,  are  greatly  increasing.  Our  sedentary, 
monotonous  industrial  life  seems  to  be  largely 
to  blame. 

It  is  obvious  from  these  considerations  that 
something  more  than  heavy  labor  is  involved  in 
the  problem  of  so-called  "  fatigue."  Indeed,  the 
real  evil  of  monotonous  factory  work  is  so  ob- 
scure, so  vaguely  understood,  that  no  satisfac- 
tory name  for  it  has  been  found.  "Strain," 
"brain-fag,"  "nerves,"  "auto-intoxication,"  are 
terms  that  describe  phases  of  it,  but  none  of 
them  clearly  denotes  the  condition. 
There  has  been,  so  far  as  I  know,  no  ade- 
240 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

quate  explanation  by  laboratory  science  for  the 
discomfort  which  comes  from  failure  to  use  up 
available  energy.  It  cannot  properly  be  called 
fatigue,  as  we  have  seen.  But  it  feels  like  fa- 
tigue, and  the  apparent  symptoms  of  weakness 
and  inertia  cause  it  to  look  like  fatigue.  So,  in 
spite  of  the  modern  view  that  there  can  be  no 
purely  mental  ailment,  that  all  mental  behavior 
is  really  a  form  of  physical  behavior,  many 
scientific  workers  speak  of  "mental  fatigue." 
A  theory  which  seems  to  accord  with  experi- 
ence is  that,  just  as  the  vital  processes  of  di- 
gestion and  assimilation  of  food,  breathing, 
heat  production,  etc.,  go  on  without  cessation 
throughout  lifetime,  there  is  perhaps  always 
some  consumption  of  muscular  tissue  going  on, 
whether  applied  usefully  to  work  or  not.  The 
waste  products  of  such  combustion  accumulate 
proportionately,  but  are  not  so  adequately  dis- 
posed of  as  when  the  circulation  is  stimulated 
by  the  mechanical  movement  of  the  muscles  in 
use.  The  result  is  a  kind  of  energy  blockade 
and  a  clogging  of  the  muscles  with  fatigue 
products  when  there  has  been  no  activity. 
Sometimes  this  energy  breaks  through  in  the 

241 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

form  of  spasmodic  movements,  or  makes  itself 
apparent  in  other  uninvited  ways.  No  wonder 
the  cramped  and  nervous  worker  watches  the 
clock,  and  pines  for  the  hour  to  rush  forth  from 
the  factory!  No  wonder,  either,  at  the  con- 
sumption of  coffee,  coca-cola,  and  other  stimu- 
lants, to  promote  a  circulation  that  should  be 
got  by  exercise. 

Releasing  the  industrial  tension.  The  practi- 
cal reason  why  we  should  not  call  mere  work- 
staleness  "fatigue"  lies  in  the  fact  that  words 
have  suggestion  values,  as  well  as  meanings. 
The  suggestion  value  in  the  word  "fatigue"  is 
the  idea  of  rest.  If  we  were  dealing  with  true 
fatigue  in  the  conditions  we  have  described,  the 
proper  remedy  would  be  to  "knock  off  work." 
This  remedy  is  too  drastic  if  it  means  reducing 
hours  of  work  to  uneconomic  lengths,  and  if 
some  other  devices  can  first  be  tried. 

An  astonishingly  complete  and  very  useful 
recent  pamphlet  of  the  National  Safety  Coun- 
cil—  Safe  Practices  Pamphlet,  No.  50  —  en- 
titled "Practical  Methods  for  Reducing  Fa- 
tigue," should  be  studied  by  every  one  inter- 

242 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

ested  in  factory  work.  It  gives  practical  reme- 
dies for  all  the  conditions  of  strain  commonly 
identified  with  fatigue.  Like  all  the  literature 
of  the  Council,  this  pamphlet  is  severely  prac- 
tical and  to  the  point.  It  takes  no  account  of 
what  might  be  called  quibbles  on  the  difference 
between  true  and  apparent  fatigue.  It  is  writ- 
ten for  the  average  factory  man  who  does  n't 
care  what  causes  fatigue  so  much  as  what  will 
offset  it.  For  an  encyclopaedic  survey  of  the  sub- 
ject, treated  from  this  practical  angle,  I  know 
of  nothing  more  helpful  than  the  Council's  bul- 
letin. 

Yet  even  in  this  survey  of  the  subject  it  is 
apparent  that  there  are  many  counteractives 
of  so-called  fatigue  that  do  nothing  to  diminish 
the  amount  of  physical  exertion  by  the  worker, 
and  that  some  of  them  aim  to  increase  it. 

Frank  and  Lillian  Gilbreth  have  been  able 
greatly  to  increase  output  on  specialized  opera- 
tions by  adapting  work  chairs  and  other  equip- 
ment to  the  workers  in  such  a  way  as  to  reduce 
wasteful  strains  and  defense  reactions.  Chairs 
fitted  with  springs,  with  comfortable  backs, 
chairs  and  benches  adjusted  in  height  to  suit 

243 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

the  worker,  and  convenient  foot  rests  are  among 
such  devices.  The  Gilbreths  call  their  work 
"fatigue-elimination,"  and  for  popular  discus- 
sion the  phrase  will  serve,  but  it  is  more  ac- 
curately "strain-minimizing,"  which  is  a  very 
different  and  special  thing.  Such  adjustments 
are  needed,  but,  in  addition  to  that,  we  need  a 
good  deal  of  fatigue-producing;  that  is,  a  means 
of  using  available  energy  up  in  a  healthy  way. 
"Rest  periods,"  so-called,  are  in  point;  pro- 
vided the  workers  are  not  allowed  to  rest. 
Henry  T.  Noyes,  of  Rochester,  gives  the  rest 
periods,  but  stimulates  the  people  to  dance  or 
play  games  instead  of  sitting  down  in  the  same 
cramped  positions  as  those  required  by  their 
work,  while  reading  newspapers  or  knitting. 
The  Joseph  &  Feiss  clothing  plant,  instead 
of  giving  rest  periods,  so-called,  requires  the 
workers  frequently  to  get  up  from  their  sewing 
machines  and  carry  good-sized  bundles  of  work 
to  the  next  work  places,  and  makes  much  of 
noon-hour  recreation. 

The  place  first  to  attack  so-called  "fatigue" 
is  clearly  at  the  work  which  produces  it.  If 
monotony  causes  the  body  to  go  stale,  some 

244 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

means  must  be  found  of  putting  variety  of  ac- 
tivity into  the  operation.  In  place  of  the  too 
specialized  use  of  small  muscles,  we  must  call 
upon  the  larger  muscles.  And  we  must  not  for- 
get that  pleasant  interests  in  work  stimulate 
circulation  through  the  activity  of  the  supra- 
renal glands. 

But  it  would  be  an  error  to  assume  that  such 
remedies  can  altogether  take  the  place  of  self- 
directed  recreation  and  activity  outside  of 
working  hours.  So  far  as  practical,  we  must  still 
look  to  shorter  hours  for  the  best  tonic.  The 
constraining  effect  of  mere  hours  of  light  work 
is  not  easily  appreciated.  When  the  factory 
system  first  started  up  in  America  and  the  cot- 
ton mills  began  to  pull  in  operatives  from  the 
farms,  people  worked  at  their  looms  from  twelve 
to  fifteen  hours  a  day  —  as  long  as  there  was 
daylight  to  see  by.  Even  children  of  five  or  six 
were  employed,  and  toiled  these  long  hours. 
We  are  horrified  nowadays  to  contemplate  such 
things,  and  consider  that  the  employers  of  fifty 
years  ago  must  have  been  wicked  exploiters. 
And  yet,  considering  their  background  and 
knowledge,  why  should  they  have  done  other- 

245 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

wise?  Their  experience  and  their  workers'  ex- 
perience had  been  with  farm  labor,  and  such 
long  hours  at  work,  even  for  children,  were  not 
alone  accepted  as  right,  but  they  even  proved 
to  be  healthy.  Why  should  "easy"  indoor  la- 
bor, which,  for  the  most  part,  consisted  of  sit- 
ting down,  merely  watching  a  machine,  be  re- 
garded as  any  more  arduous?  And  for  a  long 
time,  indeed,  it  was  n't  arduous.  The  textile 
industry  was,  and  largely  still  is,  a  family  in- 
dustry, where  husband  and  wife  could  be  em- 
ployed for  the  same  task,  and  alternate  on  the 
job,  the  man  farming  one  day  and  running  his 
loom  the  next.  Such  change  of  occupation  from 
day  to  day  was  a  sufficient  outlet  for  energies. 
So  long  as  there  was  an  opportunity  to  alter- 
nate mill  work  with  farming,  there  was  little 
harm  in  long  hours. 

The  textile  industry  was  the  first  in  America 
to  develop  on  a  large  scale  the  modern  form  of 
factory  labor.  Its  traditions  were  taken  over  by 
those  which  sprang  up  later.  The  others,  how- 
ever, did  not  provide  the  saving  opportunity  to 
alternate  indoor  employment  with  farm  and 
home  work.  As  industry  specialized  and  sub- 
246 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

divided,  long  hours  of  monotonous  light  work 
began  to  irk  and  weary  the  wage-earners,  and 
they  had  to  enter  upon  a  long  and  uphill  fight 
for  reasonable  hours. 

To  this  day,  indeed,  fixing  hours  of  work  is 
largely  a  matter  of  "collective  bargaining," 
rather  than  of  scientific  determination.  Not 
only  is  too  little  known  to  reach  scientific  con- 
clusions as  to  a  proper  day's  work,  but  even  the 
broader  facts  have  been  misrepresented  by 
faulty  ideas  of  fatigue.  The  worker  knows  that 
he  tires,  and  even  suffers,  from  his  monotonous 
job.  The  employer  looks  upon  the  work,  sees 
how  light  and  "  restful "  it  is,  and  a  dispute  nat- 
urally follows.  The  issue  is  confused  by  a  dis- 
cussion of  fatigue,  which  is  not  usually  involved. 

What  has  happened,  by  this  time,  to  our  ini- 
tial idea  that  factory  work  produces  fatigue  and 
fatigue  causes  accidents }  To  my  way  of  think- 
ing, our  reasoning  has  brought  us  up  to  a  wholly 
new  point  of  view.  We  have  n't  discovered  any- 
thing to  disprove  that  accidents  are  likely  to 
be  more  frequent  as  the  day  wears  on,  but  we 
are  likely  to  form  a  different  conclusion  about 
the  information.  We  are  likely  to  decide  not 
247 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

to  worry  much  about  work  that  is  genuinely 
fatiguing,  because  it  is  usually  healthy.  We 
shall  rather  give  our  attention  to  the  great  bulk 
of  work  that  is  too  depressing —  too  wearisome 
to  the  attention,  too  monotonous.  We  shall 
consider  that  we  have  a  health  problem,  not  a 
fatigue  problem 

This  is  not  to  say,  of  course,  that  workers  do 
not  grow  weary  with  the  passing  of  the  day. 
They  do  tire,  and  as  they  yield  to  the  feel- 
ing of  lassitude  they  are  likely  to  sustain  acci- 
dents, through  sluggish  reaction  or  sheer  inat- 
tention. The  figures  have  a  trustworthy  bear- 
ing on  that  point.  As  accidents  increase 
through  the  day,  however,  men  may  be  work- 
ing faster  and  producing  more,  precisely  because 
they  are  seldom  deeply  fatigued.  They  may 
turn  out  more  pieces,  and  yet  be  less  watchful 
of  safety  because  feeling  out  of  sorts.  The  com- 
mon sense  of  the  situation  calls  the  "tired  feel- 
ing" fatigue,  but  it  does  n't  mean  overwork,  as 
those  who  quote  the  statistics  so  plainly  do.  The 
common  sense,  therefore,  seems  to  be  more  reli- 
able than  the  figures  "That  tired  feeling"  does 
produce  accidents,  but  it  may  be  a  symptom,  not 
248 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

of  too  much  bodily  exertion,  but  of  too  little. 

It  is  precisely  because  of  the  fact  that  the  rem- 
edy for  what  is  called  fatigue  may,  in  one  case, 
be  to  slow  up  the  demands  upon  the  worker,  and 
in  another  to  increase  the  load,  that  it  becomes 
a  matter  of  first-rate  importance  in  all  the  vast 
amount  of  discussion  of  fatigue  to  distinguish 
between  the  various  causes  of  the  feeling  of  lassi- 
tude. As  causes  differ,  the  remedies  often  may 
differ.  In  order  to  make  this  still  a  bit  clearer, 
let  us  consider  what  would  be  a  good  procedure 
in  analyzing  a  typical  problem  of  fatigue  in  a 
factory,  and  attempt  to  recommend  remedies. 

It  is  not  advisable  to  confine  our  attention  to 
a  single  operative,  because  the  circumstances 
of  any  one  case  would  be  misleading.  Let  us 
rather  take  a  whole  department.  A  good  ex- 
ample would  be  the  cleaning  department  in  a 
foundry.  The  operatives  receive  castings  from 
the  "knock-out"  room  (where  the  sand,  chills, 
nails,  etc.,  are  removed  from  the  freshly  molded 
castings)  and  with  pneumatic  chisels  and  with 
hand  tools  chip  off  the  excess  metal  —  burrs, 
fins,  risers,  and  gates.  The  castings  may  be  of 
various  sizes,  some  rather  heavy,  and  not  all 

249 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

will  be  handled  by  cranes.  I  choose  this  exam- 
ple, because  much  of  the  work  is  sufficiently 
burdensome  to  give  rise  to  expectation  that  it 
will  cause  true  fatigue.  Let  us  assume  that  our 
attention  is  drawn  to  this  department  by  a 
series  of  accidents  caused  by  the  workers'  per- 
mitting castings  to  fall  on  their  toes  or  crush 
their  fingers.  Analysis  of  production  by  hours 
shows  some  falling  off  toward  the  latter  end  of 
the  day,  and  the  accidents  seem  to  occur  more 
frequently  at  ii  o'clock  in  the  morning,  with 
another  peak  toward  3.30  in  the  afternoon. 
Closer  study,  however,  shows  that  some  men 
increase  their  production  during  the  afternoon, 
and  that  some  of  the  accidents  happened  to 
some  of  these  men.  Our  problem  is  twofold: 
Is  fatigue  an  important  factor  in  these  acci- 
dents, and,  if  so,  how  can  it  be  reduced  ? 

We  must  solve  this  problem  by  excluding  as 
many  factors  as  prove  to  be  irrelevant,  as  we 
go  into  it.  First,  we  sort  out  the  men  who 
neither  decrease  in  rate  of  output  nor  sustain 
accidents.  Obviously  there  is  a  group  who  are 
so  well  fitted  to  the  work  that  there  is  no 
fatigue  problem.    It  will  be  useful,  in  passing, 

250 


THE  TIRED  MIND 

to  rate  them,  in  weight,  height,  physical  con- 
dition, age,  mentality,  experience,  personal 
habits,  temperament,  etc.,  to  compare  them, 
item  by  item,  with  similar  groups  who  do  show 
a  decreasing  production  record,  and  especially 
those  who  have  sustained  accidents.  This  com- 
parison may  aid  us  in  selecting  and  assigning 
workers  to  this  department. 

Having  determined  that  only  some  of  the 
workers  evidence  even  the  possibility  of  fa- 
tigue, we  next  inquire  whether  the  doubtful 
group  have  in  any  cases  brought  fatigue  into 
the  plant  with  them.  Dissipation,  sleeplessness 

—  whether  from  insomnia  or  merely  late  hours 

—  drink,  excessive  exertions  outside  of  work- 
ing hours,  or  such  depressions  as  those  due  to 
auto-intoxication  and  other  disease,  will  ac- 
count for  a  definite  proportion  of  so-called 
fatigue  cases.  Another  group  will  evidence 
physical  unfitness  for  this  class  of  work,  im- 
proper build  for  stooping  and  lifting,  improper 
nerv^ous  organization  for  handling  pneumatic 
tools,  in  noisy,  dusty  rooms,  or  sheer  weakness. 
Any  such  men  may  be  said  to  bring  fatigue  to 
their  work. 

251 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

With  a  diminishing  number  of  possible  fa- 
tigue cases  before  us,  we  next  inquire  whether 
mental  factors  of  distraction,  boredom,  worry, 
or  insanity  are  affecting  the  production  and 
accident  records.  We  may  succeed  in  excluding 
a  few  more  cases  on  these  accounts. 

Let  us  say  that  a  certain  proportion  are  left 
who  are  strong  men,  in  good  mental  health, 
fairly  intelligent,  and  sufficiently  experienced, 
who  do  fall  off  in  production  during  the  day  and 
who  do  sustain  injuries.  These  will  be  our 
genuine  fatigue  problems,  if  any.  The  remedies 
will  be  next  in  order. 

First,  we  should  see  whether  the  men  are  not 
trying  to  overdo,  outstripping  their  neighbors 
to  increase  their  earnings.  We  may  have  to 
discourage  some  "speed  merchants."  Study 
of  hourly  production  may  also  reveal  some 
whose  work  is  spasmodic,  giving  evidence  of 
overstrain  at  certain  periods,  and  not  showing 
up  in  the  total  day's  production.  A  better 
distribution  of  effort  may  be  brought  about, 
sometimes,  by  checking  up  excitable  foremen 
who  drive  their  men  too  much  at  certain  hours, 
or   excitable   workmen   of  uneven   effort.  In 

252 


THE  TIRED  MIND       ^ 

other  cases  we  may  find  anxious  workers^  who, 
to  save  time,  lift,  by  hand,  castings  that  should 
be  handled  by  crane;  or  men  who  stoop  over 
and  clean  castings  on  the  floor  which  should  be 
lifted  to  bench  or  other  support ;  or  we  find  an 
inadequate  provision  of  equipment  for  support- 
ing castings  at  convenient  heights. 

Assuming  that  we  are  able  to  mitigate  incon- 
venient working  conditions,  and  to  improve 
faulty  work  habits,  and  that  we  still  have  some 
evidences  of  fatigue  in  some  cases,  our  next  step 
will  be  to  ward  off  or  counteract  these  effects 
by  means  of  applying  the  laws  of  the  physiol- 
ogy of  fatigue. 

In  the  instance  of  the  foundry  labor  condi- 
tions are  ideal  for  supplying  a  sufficient  amount 
of  exertion.  There  is,  at  least,  no  energy  block- 
ade such  as  there  may  be  in  more  sedentary 
labors.  But  we  may  need  to  supply  better 
nourishment,  a  more  scientific  distribution  of 
rest  periods  or  changes  of  load,  or  just  plain 
mental  stimulus  in  the  way  of  happy  relation- 
ships, or  more  exciting  social  conditions  or  dif- 
ferential pay  —  which  we  have  analyzed  more 
fully  in  several  other  places. 

253 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

It  will  be  observed  that  all  of  the  above  pro- 
cedures are  independent  of,  and  antecedent  to, 
the  too  obvious  remedy  for  supposed  fatigue; 
less  work.  If  all  other  measures  fail,  we  have  to 
assume  that  we  have  a  condition  of  true  fatigue 
which  can  only  be  remedied,  and,  therefore, 
must  be  remedied,  by  a  reduction  in  hours  and 
a  lowering  of  production  standards. 

Such  an  analysis,  even  of  an  occupation  in- 
volving heavy  labor,  indicates  how  large  a  pro- 
portion of  the  fatigue  problem  is  really  not  a 
problem  of  overwork,  but  a  disguise  for  bore- 
dom, or  ill-health.  Any  of  the  other  mental 
conditions  we  have  discussed  will  produce  ef- 
fects that  seem  to  point  to  overwork,  and  that 
may,  loosely,  be  called  fatigue.  This  term, 
however,  should  not  be  made  too  easily  to  serve 
for  every  condition  of  mental  and  physical  ill- 
health  connected  with  factory  work,  because 
it  is  likely  to  lead  us  off  into  faulty  remedies. 
With  proper  adjustment  of  men  and  working 
conditions  to  each  other,  it  is  possible  to  achieve 
the  result  which  every  factory  should  set  before 
it  as  an  aim: 

More  Work  with  Less  Fatigue. 

254 


CHAPTER  X 

ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

Diminishing  returns  in  safety  work.  Accident 
prevention  is  already  with  us.  It  is  a  two-phase 
routine;  first,  of  putting  locks,  bars,  screens, 
and  fences  on  dangerous  machinery,  with  a  view 
to  making  it  "fool-proof";  second,  of  pasting 
up  danger  signs,  scarifying  pictures,  and  catchy 
slogans,  to  persuade  workmen  to  use  these 
safety  devices.  There  is  little  in  the  system, 
however,  to  make  men  less  foolish,  or  to  segre- 
gate self-endangering  men  in  places  where  they 
are  not  likely  to  hurt  themselves.  Accident  pre- 
vention takes  men  as  they  are  and  treats  every 
one  alike. 

Accident  hygiene  is  a  development  of  safety 
work  from  this  point  on.  It  presupposes  the  ex- 
istence in  a  factory  of  all  the  well-known  me- 
chanical safeguards.  It  takes  for  granted  that 
the  State  factory  inspectors  have  caused  gears 
to  be  screened,  belts  to  be  guarded,  and  de- 
vices to  be  set  up  which  will  shield  the  fingers 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

of  operatives  from  getting  crushed  or  cut  in 
machines,  at  the  point  of  operation.  It  counts 
upon  the  assistance  of  the  compensation  in- 
surance companies  in  keeping  safety  commit- 
tees alive,  to  consider  safe  clothing,  safe  light- 
ing, and  safe  methods  of  operation.  It  assumes 
that  we  have  largely  won  the  battle  to  get  fac- 
tories to  establish  medical  departments,  or,  at 
least,  first-aid  departments,  competent  to  deal 
with  injuries  promptly,  in  order  to  reduce  in- 
fections and  other  complications. 

Indeed,  unless  these  things  have  been  ac- 
complished, there  is  no  place  in  the  given  fac- 
tory for  accident  hygiene.  Prevention,  such  as 
above  described,  is  necessary;  first,  because  all 
men  are  alike  in  many  things ;  indeed,  they  re- 
semble each  other  more  than  they  differ  from 
each  other.  It  is  economical  to  deal  with  them, 
at  the  start,  with  respect  to  those  traits  and 
tendencies  which  they  have  in  common.  If  we 
were  to  begin  the  other  way  around,  and  treat 
every  factory  hand  first  as  an  individual,  set- 
ting up  such  safeguards  as  were  necessary  for 
him,  and  establishing  a  tickler  system  telling  us 
how  often  to  remind  him  to  be  careful,  and 
256 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

writing  up  slogans  and  warnings  in  terms  which 
a  study  of  his  personal  psychology  required,  we 
should  quickly  make  a  discovery.  We  should 
find  that  what  began  by  being  a  burdensome 
toil  was  lightening,  as  we  passed  from  man  to 
man.  John  would  prove  to  be  so  largely  in  the 
same  situation  as  Andrew,  next  to  him,  that 
nine  tenths  of  the  material  we  provided  for  the 
one  would  be  suitable  for  the  other,  without 
change.  We  should  find  that  some  things  were 
true  of  every  workman.  If  they  were  alike  fifty 
per  cent  and  different  fifty  per  cent,  therefore, 
we  could  get  half  of  our  results  with  a  single 
effort,  aimed  at  the  whole  lot  of  them ;  whereas 
the  other  half  of  the  results  would  cost  many 
times  as  much  labor  —  a  special  effort  for  each 
man.  We  should  naturally,  of  course,  do,  first, 
the  things  which  yielded  the  biggest  results. 

In  the  safety  movement,  however,  industry 
has  already  reached  the  point  of  diminishing  re- 
turns from  further  efforts  with  broadside  reme- 
dies and  shotgun  prescriptions.  In  a  single  de- 
cade it  has  reduced  the  severity  and  frequency 
of  accidents  in  a  marvelous  fashion.  It  has  writ- 
ten into  law  and  into  standard  practice  a  rou- 

257 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

tine  of  mechanical  safeguards  and  safety  in- 
struction and  inspection  which  reaches  prac- 
tically every  factory  in  the  country.  And  the 
chief  concern  of  safety  engineers,  now,  is  not  to 
conquer  new  fields  and  new  situations,  but  to 
hold  the  gains  made,  to  sustain  the  enthusiasm 
and  interest  already  aroused,  and  to  keep  safety 
committees  going.  The  fight,  the  anxiety  and 
excitement  of  pioneering,  have  gone  out  of  the 
job;  the  safety  movement  has  entered  the 
phase  of  gleaning.  Refinements  of  old  equip- 
ment ;  revisions  of,  and  more  "  active "  photog- 
raphy in,  old  bulletins ;  new  stunts  to  keep  com- 
mittees awake;  new  accident  tables  to  keep 
managements  interested  —  these  are  the  sub- 
jects which  occupy  the  engineer. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  work  sometimes 
becomes  stereot5^ped  and  ineffective.  Ideas 
that  once  proved  stimulating  are  now  worn 
threadbare  with  repeated  use.  When  railroads 
began  to  stencil  the  words  "Safety  First"  on  all 
box-cars,  the  public  ceased  to  read  them.  We 
don't  heed  the  slogan,  "Always  Be  Careful,"  or 
"Don't  Get  Hurt,"  stamped  on  a  carload  of 
steers,  any  more  than  the  cattle  do.  We  may 

258 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

note  the  comments  which  Weary  Willie  has 
chalked  up  on  the  outside,  telling  the  "bo's" 
to  avoid  Buffalo.  We  may  even  give  attention 
to  the  oddity  of  the  phrase,  "The  Road  of  the 
Big  Baked  Potato."  But  "Safety  First"  are 
words  which  we  have  read  before;  they  are 
part  of  our  usual  environment.  If  part  of  our 
usual  conduct  is  to  be  careless,  the  slogan  goes 
along  with  it.  It  is  astonishing,  indeed,  how 
many  moral  precepts  we  can  carry  with  us 
comfortably  into  the  very  act  of  wrong-doing. 
A  hardened  sinner  can  ply  his  sinful  trade, 
while  prating  sentiments  of  contrary  import,  as 
blithely  as  a  juggler  can  toss  up  five  billiard 
balls  while  balancing  a  lighted  lamp  on  his  head. 
And  so,  the  careless  workman  has  long  since 
learned  to  take  all  of  the  usual  hurdles,  without 
paying  much  attention  to  the  photographs  of 
mangled  fingers  on  the  bulletin  boards.  He  ex- 
pects  the  bulletins;  he  knows  just  where  not  to 
look  for  them. 

For  a  while  the  tendency  of  commonplace 
safety  devices  to  lose  their  effectiveness  with 
re-use  can  be  overcome  by  making  them  more 
common.  And  so,  the  bulletins  are  set  up  more 

259 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

frequently;  the  slogan  is  inserted  even  into  the 
pay  envelope.  In  the  course  of  time,  however, 
the  limit  of  absurdity  is  reached  in  this,  and 
further  repetitions  have  no  more  weight  than 
do  the  prayers  which  Mohammedans  in  India, 
print  on  long  strips  of  paper  and  wind  up  on  a 
wheel,  in  lieu  of  reciting  them. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  belittle  the  safety 
work  already  accomplished.  Nothing  which  we 
can  henceforward  do  will  be  capable  of  yielding 
as  large  further  returns  in  accident  prevention 
as  have  already  been  secured.  Up  to  ten  years 
ago,  our  industries  each  year  were  killing 
35,000  men  and  injuring  2,000,000  more.  The 
safety  movement  has  worked  astonishing  im- 
provement in  this  record.  Some  plants  have  se- 
cured 80  to  90  per  cent  reductions  in  their  acci- 
dent figures  in  a  period  of  five  years.  A  bulletin 
of  the  New  York  Department  of  Labor  ^  reports 
reductions  of  accidents  in  the  National  Tube 
Company's  McKeesport  plant  of  85  per  cent, 
in  the  American  Smelting  and  Refining  Com- 
pany's Omaha  plant  of  90  per  cent,  and  in  the 
Eastman  Kodak  plant  of  80  per  cent.  The  Na- 

*  Bulletin  No.  ^^. 
260 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

tional  Harvester  Company  in  five  years  cut  its 
deaths  and  its  other  accidents  each  down  60  per 
cent.  Measuring  the  ground  between  the  point 
at  which  safety  work  began  and  the  theoretical 
condition  of  "no-accidents,"  over  50  percent 
of  the  distance  has  already  been  traversed.  The 
idea  of  accident  hygiene,  therefore,  can  only  be 
builded  on  the  premise  of  accident  prevention. 
It  rarely  happens,  however,  that  old  con- 
quests can  be  held  secure  by  old  methods.  In 
safety  work,  we  need  a  change  of  methods  — 
or,  at  least,  a  larger  repertoire  of  methods  —  to 
maintain  the  gains  already  made.  And,  for  the 
purpose  of  still  further  reducing  accidents,  it  is 
obvious  that  we  must  devise  new  schemes  and 
discover  new  approaches.  It  seems  evident  that 
the  broadside  propaganda  has  lost  most  of  its 
power  to  produce  new  results. 

Accident  hygiene.  Accident  hygiene  —  the 
next  step  —  is  a  technique  for  dealing  with  in- 
dividual cases,  in  special  ways  suited  to  each. 
Accident  prevention,  on  the  one  hand,  is  like 
public-health  work.  Accident  hygiene,  on  the 
other,  is  like  prescribing  for  sick  people  individ- 

261 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

uaily,  as  their  cases  require.  Public-health 
work  requires  dairies  to  be  inspected,  water 
supply  to  be  rendered  pure,  sewage  to  be  dis- 
posed of,  infectious  diseases  to  be  isolated,  and 
flies  and  mosquitoes  to  be  fought.  It  does  every- 
thing possible  to  preserve  the  health  of  the 
whole  community.  Private  medicine,  neverthe- 
less, finds  much  illness  to  treat  that  cannot  be 
prevented  in  this  wholesale  way.  And  so,  too, 
we  find  that,  after  we  do  all  of  the  accepted 
things  in  safety  work,  we  still  have  many  ac- 
cidents arising  out  of  the  special  circumstances 
affecting  individuals,  and  we  must  also  supple- 
ment general  safety  devices  by  prescribing  a 
special  kind  of  safety  medicine.  After  we  treat 
men  for  accidents  growing  out  of  traits  in 
which  they  are  alike,  we  must  treat  them  for  ac- 
cidents growing  out  of  traits  in  which  they  differ. 
This  book  has  not,  of  course,  dealt  with  all 
the  various  ways  in  which  men  are  likely  to  dif- 
fer from  one  another,  but  it  has  classified  some 
fifteen  types  of  individual  variations  which  are 
sources  of  mental  accident  hazards.  The  ma- 
jority of  special  cases  will,  I  believe,  fall  within 
these  classifications. 

262, 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

The  preceding  chapters  have  not  laid  special 
stress  upon  remedial  measures,  but  upon  analy- 
sis. The  prime  need,  first,  is  proper  diagnosis. 
We  must  be  sure  that  we  know  the  psychology 
of  men  who  get  hurt  before  we  can  fit  measures 
to  that  psychology.  And  the  proper  knowledge 
of  causes  usually  carries,  implicitly,  a  sugges- 
tion of  the  cure.  There  was  another  reason,  be- 
sides, for  not  laying  too  much  stress  upon  rem- 
edies while  dealing  with  each  cause.  As  we  go 
back  over  the  subjects  discussed,  we  find,  gen- 
erally, that  no  one  remedy  can  deal  with  the 
trouble  —  it  usually  takes  two  or  three  in  coop- 
eration; and,  again,  the  same  procedure  called 
upon  for  dealing  with  one  bad  condition  has  to 
be  brought  in  to  alleviate  another. 

Thus,  in  considering  the  question  oi  faulty 
attitudes  of  workmen,  we  see  that  we  must  ap- 
proach stubborn  individuals  through  individ- 
ual contacts  —  of  service  workers,  foremen, 
etc.,  through  organized  enthusiasm,  In  commit- 
tee government  and  activities;  and  through  the 
very  atmosphere  of  the  shop,  which  is  created 
by  the  whole  programme  of  the  management. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  use  these  individual 

263 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

contacts,  this  group  spirit,  and  this  atmosphere 
of  the  shop,  to  accomplish  improvements  also 
in  cases  o{ faulty  habits,  of  inattention,  of  worry, 
and  of  other  causes  of  accident. 

To  show  the  interaction  of  the  various  types 
of  remedies  upon  each  cause  and  upon  each 
other,  the  writer  has  worked  out  the  accom- 
panying chart.  It  is  a  compact  summary  of 
all  the  procedures  implied  in  the  discussions  of 
preceding  chapters,  and,  beyond  that,  it  lo- 
cates what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  proper  rela- 
tionship of  other  common  aspects  of  employ- 
ees' service  work. 

Discussing  them  briefly,  it  will  be  noted  that 
I  have  considered  eight  types  of  remedies:  (i) 
job  analysis,  (2)  improved  working  conditions, 
(3)  better  selection  and  assignment,  (4)  train- 
ing, (5)  organization,  (6)  periodic  personnel 
surveys,  (7)  individual  adjustments,  and  (8) 
accident  "  post-mortems." 

Fitting  the  man  to  the  job.  Job  analyses  are 

written  descriptions  of  jobs,  intended  primarily 

to  furnish  the  basis  for  hiring  men  who  will  be 

capable  of  performing  the  work  to  which  the}'^ 

264 


MENTAL  CAU5E5 
ACCIDLNT^ 


TYPE 5   OF  REMEDIES    A\\) 
— I 1 


J06  ANALY515 


IMPROVED 
WORKINC  CONDITIONS 


BLTTELR.  5ELECT10N*ndA55IC;NME 


MENTAL  FITNE55 


PHYSICAL  FITN 


IGNOIiANCL 

OF  ENGLISH 


TO  determine: 

LAtNGUAQEHA2AE.D 


A53iqNMEMT  B/kSED 
ON  L^HqUAOE  HAZARP 
LITERACY  TESTS 


INEXPERIENCE 


LEAR.N1MC  PERIOD  BY 
AGE  GROUPS 
PROBABLE  CHAMCL  OF 
ACCIDENT  AT  EACH 
LENGTH  or  LMPLOYMENT 


CHEER.  FUL 
ATMOSPHERE   FOR. 
LEAR>4ER.5 


TRADE  TE5T3 
SOCIAL  HISTORIES 
P££FttENCE.  IN 
DANGE&0U.3  JOBS 
FOE  EXPEE.IEHCE" 


MENTAL  LIMITATION 


TO  DETERMINE 
MINIMUM  MEKTALAGE 
SAFE  fOR.  OPEE.ATIOM 


A55ICNMtNT  BASED 
ON  IMTELUGCNCE 
TE5T.5 


PREDISPOSITIONS 

5EN5E  DEFECTS 


TO  DETER.MINE  iENSE 
REQUIREMENTS 


ASJIQNMEfrr  BASE 
TESTCj  OF  5PtCIAI 
SENSES 


MENTAL  5 LT 5 
f^AULTY  ATTITUDES 
EXCITABILITY 


ATM05PHER.E  OF  GOOD 
WILLAHD  CONFIDENCE. 
INTHE  MANAGEMENT 


STUDY  OP  SOCIAL 
HISTORY  TO  EEJECT 
MISFITS 


TEST  FOR. 
EXCITABILITY 


SUBCONSCIOUS 
ER.R0R.5 


STUDY  OF  POSSIBLE, 
SOURCE  OF  MENTAL 
ERROR. 


STANDARDIZED 

SAFETY  DEVICES 
CONDITIONS 
MACHINES 
5PACIMQS  ETC, 


MAJCE  CHECK  LIST  OP 
SAFETY  HABITS 


FAULTY  HABIT5 
(HURR.Y) 


STANDARD  TASKS 
STANDARD  ROUTINE 
ALERT  SUPERVISION 


WORKING  TESTS 


INATTENTION 

BOREDOM 


STUDY  OF  TEMPERAMCKT 
SUITED 


LEADERSHIP 
PAYMENT  BY  RESULTS 
GOOD  TOOLS   ETC. 
HOURS 


ASSIGNMENT 

OF  TEMPERAMENT  SUITED 


DISTRACTION 


ANALYSIS  OF 

SURIUJUMDINQ 

C0ND1TI0K3 


BETTER  SCHEDOLING 
SELF- CONTROLLED 
MANAQEMtNT 


TESTS  FOR  CONCENTRATION  TESTS  FOR  RESPOI 


AND  RESPONSE 


TO  PHYSICAL  3TIM  ! 


PREOCCUPATION 

WORRY  5TR1  PL 


CONTINUOUS  IMPLOYMENI 
FRIENDLY  MANACOIENT 


5TUDY  OP  HOME. 
SITUATION 
PREFERENCE.  FOR. 
SANGUINE.  TEI^PERS 


V^-EIQHT.  MUrHiTl 
AND  5LE.EP 


MENTAL 
DI5LA5L 


social  history 
especially  job 
5Ta&il:ty 


OBSERVATION  Of; 
(VAS3ERMAN3,  Sfll 
PC)NCrUE.E3.ETC,  R 
PHYSICAL  51CM3 


DEP&E55I0N 

D15EA5L 


PHYSICAL  HEALTH 
AND   STRENGTH 
REQU1REME.NT5 


MINIMIZED  INDUSTRIAL 
DISEASE.  HAZARD 


CASE  H15T0R.Y 
EXAMINATIONS  f 
HEALTH  AND  5TREJ|l 
CLASSIFICATION 


DRUQ  S,  DRINK,  tTC 


OBSERVATION  FOR 
PHYSICAL  SIGNS 
f,ND  SYMPTOMS 


FAULTY  PLANT 
CONDITIONS 


CLASSIFICATION  OF 
J0B5  m TERMS  OF 
OCCUPATIONAL 
.DISEASE.  HAZAR.D3 


ENERGY  BLOCKADE 

SO-CALLtP 

FATiqUE. 


STUDY  OF  MENTAL 
AND- PHYSICAL  TYPES 
3t7lTE.D 


ADEQUATE.  LIGHTINQ 
VENTILATIOM. 


ASSIGNMENT  BA3 
ON  CUSSIFICATIC 


RECREATION 
RE5T-PERI0DO 
STRAIN- MINIMIZINQ- 
EQUIPMENT 
CHANGE  OF  VJOKK 


ASSIGNMENT  BA! 
OKTYPE  OF  ENER 
INDICATED 


O  HOW  THEY  AFFECT    EACH  CAU5E 

TRA[NINQ 
"(JUDOCTRINATIOM) 

organization 
(mobilizlation) 

PLRIODIC 
PE:R50NNLL5URVLY 

INDIVIDUAL 
ADJU5TME.NT5 

ACCIDELNT 
P05T-MORrtM5 

ENQLISH  CLAS5t5 
FOE.  FORE.IGNER.S 
NIGRT  aOHOOLS  FOR. 
1LLITEB.KTE5 

INTEE.VIEV/5 

^KFLTY  Fie5T  CLA55L5 

rot  &E:aiMNE.R.J 

PE,R50MAL  FOLLOW  UP 
OF  ALL  BEQINNER5 
WITH  REFLR.tNCE,T0 
LEAENINC  PERIOD  ETC 

T^ANSFEES  WHEN 
NEEDED  TO  CORRECT 
FAULTY  5ELECT10M 

FORMER  WORK 
EMPLOYMENT  DEPT 
RECORDS-INCLUDING 
DATE  Of  EMPLOYMENT 

GRADING  OFMOJUL 
RJ5KS  MiD  INSTRUCnOM 
FOR.  tACH  CLA.5<3 

OUESTIONINC  ALL 
REPEATERS   AMD  ALL 
WHO  SHOW  INABILITY 
TO  LEARN 

RECORD  OF  MENTAL 

TESTS 

FOREMEN'S  RATINGS  ETC. 

BULLE.TIN5 
DE.5IQNED  FOR, 
BROAD  E.FFECT5 

E.3PEC1AL  STUDY  OF 
FOREMEN'S  FIRST  RATINQS 

TRAMSFEHS  WHEN 
NEEDED  TO  CORRECT 
OVER.- SIGHTS  OW 
PHYSICAL  EXAMINATIONS 

RECORD  OF  PHYSICAL 

EXAMS 

F0££M£M5  RATINQS  ETC 

SPECIAL  ECUCATIOM 
FOR.  EftCH  TYPE.  OF 
FAULTY  ATTITUDE, 

SHOP  C0UMC]L5  TO      , 
ENU5T  THE'C0N5E,NT 
OF  WOR.KEg.5 

FOREMEN'S  RATINGS 

INTERVIEWS  BY  SAFETY 
SERVICE,  AND  MEDICAL 
DEPARTMENTS 
SEGREGATION  OR, 
DISCHARGE  OF'KICKERS 

TESTIMONY  OF 
FELLOW  WORKERS 
FOREMEN'S  RATINGS 

WAIINIWG5  0N30UR.CE5 
0F.5UB-COWSC1OU3 
CRiOR.3  A3 
DISCLOSED 

STUDY  OF  THE 
ACCIDENT 

C0N5TAKT  DRILL  BA5ED 
ON  MOTIOK  STUDY 
VE.5T1BULE  SCHOOL 
FOR.BtqiNNER.5 

MANAqEMENT 
PULL-TOQETRER- 
TO  3ECUR.E, 
STANDARDIZED  METHODS 

P.E PORTS  OF 
BREACHES  OP 
5AFETY    HABITS 

RE-EPUCATION  FOR 
INCOR.RE.CT  HABITS 
DISCIPLINE 

STUDY  OFTHE  ACCIDENT 
STORY  OF  INSTRUCT0R,5 

PUBLICITY  TO 
1NTER.E3T  MEN 
IW  JOBS 

RECR.EAT10X  CLUb^ 
SAFETY  COWWITTEES 
5K0P  COUNCILS  ETC 
TO  ENU5T  INTERLar 
5UC(1E.3T10N  yrSTEMS  EJC 

FAILURE  TO  MA1<.E 
EXPECTED  DAILY 
PR.ODUCTIOU 
WA5T&  R.ECOE.P 

TEMPORARY  OR. 
PERMANENT  CHANGE 
OF  WORK. 

PRODUCTION,  QUALITY 
AND  ATTENDANCE 
RECORDS 

• 

FUNCTIONAL  CONTROL  OF 

PLANNINQ  ETC 

TO  SECURE  ^SMOOTH 

OPER^AUOM 

SURVEYS  OF  WORKINq 
CONDITIONS 

STUDY  OF  THE 
ACCIDENT 

TESTIMONY  OF  THE 
VICTIM 

PERSUADING 
WORKERS  TO  BRJNQ 
TROUbLLS  TO 
SERVICE-  DEFT 

5H0P  COMM.lTrEE.5 
TO  HELP  BRIKC  OUT 
CAUSES  OF  COMPLAJNT 
AMD  TEJ5UBLE3 

ABSENTEEISM 
OUTPUT  R.ECORP 
EXCESSIVE  WA3TL 
RERATINGOFfOREJrtEN 

HOME  VISITS  BV 
SERVICE  WORKERS 
MENTAL  HYGIENE 

HOME  INQUier 
STORY  OF  VICTIM 
STORY  OF  FOREMEN 

QUARRELS  AND 
INSUBORDINATION 
A5  REPORTED  BY 
FOREMEJ^ 

PSYCHIATRIC  CLINIC 
FOR  ECCENTRICS 
TREATMENT  OR 
SEGREQATIOH 

PSYCHIATRIC 
EXAMINATIOM 

STORY  or 

ASSOCtATES 

CHECK  UP  ON 
EXCESSIVE 
AB5E1NTF.FI.SM  ON 
BASrS   OFEXPLCTED 
R.ATE3 

TREATMENT  BY 
MEDICAL  DEPT 
DENTISTS  ETC 

PHYSICAL  EXAM. 
5IC1CNE53  RECORDS 

STRICT  INDIVIDUAL 
FOLLOV^-UP   WITH 
DISCHARGE  IF  NECESSARY 

PHYSICAL  EVAM 
FOREMEN^  STORY 

PHOTOMETEP,R£AD1NQS 
FOR  ILLUMINATION 
HUMIDITr  R.EADINQ5 
ETC 

TRAN3TER5  WHEN 
RECOMMENDED 
BY  PHY5ICIAH 

STUDY  BY  SERVICE 
DEPT  AND  BY  SAFETY 
COMMITTEE 

OUTPUT  RECOE.P 
^TUDYOF  FMLOR^ 
TO  MA!;E  STANDARDS 
REEXAM.IKAT10N5  IF 
NECESSARY 

ADJUSTMENT  OF  CHAIRS 
BENCHES  ETC. 
VACATIONS  TRANSFER 
IF  NECESSARY 

PERSONNEL  SURVEY 
PRODUCTION 
R.ECOR.D  BY  HOURS 
EXPERT  JURY" 

tn 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

are  assigned.  The  need  for  such  a  catalogue 
arose  when  employment  was  centralized  and 
employment  managers  were  asked  to  select 
workers  for  a  wider  range  of  jobs  than  any  one 
man  could  be  familiar  with.  They  were  de- 
vised as  cyclopaedic  indexes  of  the  skill,  expe- 
rience, and  physical  equipment  required  in 
each  operation.  In  course  of  time,  however,  it 
was  discovered  that  the  concentrated  atten- 
tion summoned  for  studying  jobs,  so  as  to  de- 
scribe them,  also  involved,  oftentimes,  the 
discovery  of  methods  for  improving  them. 
Furthermore,  it  became  evident  that  for  the 
successful  conduct  of  a  job  much  more  was  re- 
quired than  skill,  experience,  and  strength. 
There  were,  likewise,  intelligence,  attitude, 
temperament,  and  other  qualities  which  were 
seen  to  influence  a  workman  to  remain  hap- 
pily on  the  job,  produce  abundantly,  exert  a 
good  influence  upon  his  fellow  workers,  and 
avoid  the  accident  hazards  that  go  with  the 
operation.  Thus  we  see  that,  after  all  ques- 
tions of  capacity  to  do  the  work  are  dealt  with, 
we  must  go  over  the  whole  ground  again,  in 
connection  with  safety.   We  have  to  consider 

265 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

whether  a  non-English-speaking  worker  will 
be  a  special  hazard ;  reckon  for  how  long  a  time 
a  learner  needs  watching;  investigate  whether 
the  surroundings  are  more  dangerous  and  call 
for  more  intelligence  for  safety  than  the.actual 
job  requires  for  efficiency;  inquire  whether 
sense  defects  of  one  kind  or  another  would 
prove  particularly  dangerous;  and  observe 
what  physical  and  mental  qualities  are  required 
in  that  job,  to  keep  a  workman  interested,  and 
reasonably  free  from  energy  blockade,  or  "fa- 
tigue," and  healthy  in  the  given  physical  con- 
ditions. 

Such  studies  are  the  necessary  first  step  in 
dealing  with  mental  causes  of  accidents,  be- 
cause, obviously,  the  next  two  remedies  — 
improved  working  conditions  and  better  as- 
signment —  grow  out  of  them.  In  the  first 
place,  so  far  as  physical  and  other  working  con- 
ditions influence  the  mental  states  of  workers, 
we  must  find  our  key  to  improving  these 
conditions  by  studying  each  individual  op- 
eration in  turn.  Subconscious  errors,  as  we 
pointed  out  while  considering  them,  usually 
spring  from  the  failure  to  find  surrounding 
266 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

or  accompanying  circumstances  the  same  in 
two  situations,  when  essential  conditions  are 
the  same.  A  man  transferred  from  one  lathe 
to  another,  to  do  the  same  work,  expects  to 
find  all  spacings  of  working  parts  and  all  posi- 
tions of  control  mechanisms  the  same  on  the 
two  machines,  so  that  his  habits  will  not  be 
disturbed.  To  effect  the  needed  standardiza- 
tions for  safe  operation,  therefore,  requires  a 
preliminary  job  analysis.  Again,  in  order  to 
minimize  occupational  disease  hazards,  to  en- 
sure adequate  lighting  and  ventilation,  and 
to  devise  strain-minimizing,  or  habit-serving, 
equipment  —  all  this  requires  job  analysis,  a 
continuing  and  a  perpetually  improving  study 
of  the  fitness  of  the  man  and  the  job  to  each 
other. 

There  are,  of  course,  additional  circum- 
stances in  connection  with  working  conditions 
which  do  not  thus  vary  with  individual  jobs, 
and  which  do  not  show  up  in  these  analyses, 
but  which  do  strongly  affect  the  psycho- 
logical conditions.  They  are  chiefly  circum- 
stances of  the  character  of  the  management. 
It  is  management,  which  helps  remove  faulty 
267 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

attitudes  when  it  creates  an  atmosphere  of  good- 
will and  belief;  management,  which  helps  cure 
faulty  habits  when  it  provides  standard  training 
methods;  management,  which  minimizes  inat- 
tention caused  by  ennui  when  it  pays  accord- 
ing to  results  and  furnishes  good  tools  and  in- 
spiring leadership;  management,  which  offsets 
distractions  and  prevents  noise  and  confusion 
when  it  furnishes  long-headed  planning  and 
calm,  dignified  supervision;  and  it  is  manage- 
ment, which  reduces  zvorry  and  strain  when 
it  causes  contacts  within  the  plant  to  be  as 
friendly  as  possible.  The  working  conditions, 
in  short,  affect  the  worker  from  two  angles; 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  special  attributes 
of  his  job,  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  his 
general  treatment  at  the  hands  of  management. 
Workers  are  selected,  however,  subject  only 
to  the  special  demands  of  the  job.  The  charac- 
ter of  the  management  is  a  help  or  a  handicap, 
as  may  be.  The  employment  manager,  in  choos- 
ing an  operative,  must  consider  only  the  equip- 
ment of  the  worker  and  the  demands  of  the  job 
as  functions  of  one  another.  The  job  analysis, 
therefore,  furnishes  all  the  help  which  the  em- 

268 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

ployment  manager  can  assure  himself  in  carry- 
ing out  his  purpose  to  hire,  for  each  opening, 
only  a  man  who  will  be  safe.  He  needs  all  the 
assistance  he  can  get  from  any  source,  because 
of  the  great  importance  and  promise  of  proper 
hiring.  The  obvious  economy  of  this  effort  lies 
in  the  fact  that,  if  it  were  a  perfect  success, 
nothing  else  would  be  necessary ;  men  would  not 
get  hurt.  Theoretically,  perfect  selection  and 
assignment  would  stop,  at  the  source,  the  type 
of  accidents  we  are  here  considering. 

Now,  for  the  last  five  years,  industry  has  been 
talking  big  things  about  scientific  selection  of 
workmen.  Here  and  there  interesting  experi- 
ments have  been  tried.  The  Dennison  Com- 
pany did  some  good  job  analyses  a  year  or  so 
ago.  The  Joseph  &  P'eiss  Company  has  made 
some  psychological  tests  for  general  intelli- 
gence. Dr.  Henry  C.  Link  was,  for  a  brief 
while,  permitted  to  hire  for  several  departments 
in  a  New  Haven  factory,  on  the  basis  of  sense 
tests.  There  may  be  other  partial  instances. 
But  I  know  of  no  factory  or  business  house 
in  the  United  States  which  really  and  consist- 
ently has  scientific  selection  of  workmen.  When 

269 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

times  were  flush,  managers  did  n't  dare  make 
thorough  tests,  because  they  might  antagonize 
workmen,  and  there  was  no  opportunity  to 
choose,  anyway;  you  must  hire  all  you  could 
persuade  to  work  for  you.  Later,  when  the 
labor  market  eased  up,  times  were  bad,  and 
scientific  selection  was  considered  too  costly. 
Spending  money  freely  could  n't  even  buy 
scientific  selection  to-day;  the  technique  has 
not  been  developed.  We  may  say,  however,  rel- 
ative to  reaching  out  for  men  who  are  likely  to 
be  safe,  that,  when  job  analysis  has  established 
real  specifications  —  mental  and  physical  — 
for  each  operation,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  elim- 
inate those  who  are  predisposed  to  accident. 
It  ought  to  be  possible,  by  intelligence  tests, 
sense,  and  other  physical  examinations,  and 
some  kind  of  tests  for  temperament  (yet  to  be 
developed),  to  gauge  men  "Go"  and  "No-Go." 
In  the  meantime,  we  can  at  least  make  use 
of  "social  histories";  that  is,  the  significant 
facts  about  applicants'  previous  adjustments. 
There  is  already  enough  known,  about  the  co- 
ordination between  success  in  school  for  each 
age  and  intelligence ;  between  length  of  service 

270 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

and  earnings  in  previous  jobs,  and  present  fit- 
ness for  industry;  between  marital  experience, 
migrations,  and  one  or  two  other  symptoms  of 
emotional  situation,  and  a  man's  prospective 
mental  health ;  so  that,  if  these  facts  were  ascer- 
tained before  putting  an  applicant  to  work,  the 
employment  man  could  generally  predict  the 
worker's  further  progress.  It  is  not  usual  to 
make  inquiry  with  regard  to  these  factors,  or  to 
look  at  them  as  interrelated  and  symptomatic. 
There  they  are,  however,  available  for  use. 
And  they  must  be  used,  if  mental  tests  are  ever 
to  be  generally  and  economically  employed  in 
hiring,  because  social  histories  can  be  made  suf- 
ficiently reliable  to  classify  the  great  bulk  of 
applicants  as  normal,  without  further  inquiry; 
thus  reserving  finer  tests  for  border-line  or 
puzzling  cases,  and  for  critical  situations. 

There  is,  of  course,  an  ever-widening  range 
of  criteria  and  tests  which  may  be  used  in  select- 
ing men.  I  have  indicated  on  the  chart  more 
than  are  likely  to  be  utilized  for  some  time  to 
come,  but  I  do  feel  that  the  physical  examina- 
tion In  industry  has  been  a  failure  when  viewed 
as  a  possible  aid  to  assignment.    If  plant  physi- 

271 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

cians  would  absorb  the  data  on  job  analyses, 
and  spend  only  a  little  more  time  with  each 
applicant,  they  could  offer  great  assistance  to 
employment  managers  by  determining  sense 
endowments,  response  to  stimulus,  endurance, 
and  other  prime  factors  of  intelligence  and 
fitness  of  applicants. 

Individual  education  in  safety.  In  the  mean- 
time, selection  being  still  so  haphazard  and  so 
unscientific,  we  are  forced  to  rely,  for  control  of 
mental  accident  hazards,  mainly  upon  indi- 
vidual improvement  and  adjustment  after 
hiring.  We  must,  first,  design  a  system  of  train- 
ing which  will  put  the  knowledge  of  safe  prac- 
tices at  the  disposal  of  all  workers,  in  terms 
that  will  reach  their  minds  individually;  drill- 
ing each  according  to  his  deficiencies.  We  must 
then  so  organize  the  workers  themselves  that 
they  will  desire  to  put  this  knowledge  into  use. 

Education  and  organization  are,  of  course, 
not  new  in  safety  work;  the  one  exists  famil- 
iarly through  the  medium  of  the  bulletin  board 
and  the  safety  meeting;  the  other  is  common  in 
the  form  of  an  elected  safety  committee,  with 

272 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

power  to  consider  accidents  and  recommend 
safeguards.  At  present,  however,  education  is 
not  made  personal ;  that  is,  it  is  not  adapted  to 
varied  types  and  states  of  mind ;  and  organi- 
zation is  not  permitted  to  go  far  enough;  that 
is,  it  is  not  consciously  extended  in  its  scope 
to  cover  the  antecedent  mental  causes  of  ac- 
cidents. 

More  highly  individualized  education  will, 
first,  classify  workers  as  mental  risks.  Begin- 
ners will  be  tagged  as  the  gravest  problem; 
those  known  to  be  of  feeble  wit,  or  of  undisci- 
plined, awkward  habit,  or  of  contrary,  unco- 
operative temper,  will  all  have  separate  guide 
cards  or  index  tabs  in  the  safety  engineer's  card 
catalogue,  and  he  will  devise  special  approaches 
for  each  group.  But  with  fuller  knowledge  of 
psychology,  the  informed  management  will  not, 
as  at  present,  rely  for  safety  instruction  solely 
upon  appeal  to  the  conscious,  voluntary  aware- 
ness and  cooperation  of  the  workers.  They  will 
realize  that  a  solid  habit,  even  stupidly  ad- 
hered to,  is  worth  a  dozen  spasms  of  good  reso- 
lution which  grow  out  of  fear  of  getting  hurt. 
They  will,  therefore,  devise  routines  of  work 

273 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

habits  in  which  safety  is  implicit.  We  have  in- 
stances of  them  in  the  goggle  habit,  the  finger- 
stall habit,  and  the  like;  but  only  in  rare  cases, 
under  scientific  management,  have  we  applied 
motion  study.  The  field  of  habit  formation  in 
industry  is  but  scratched.  I  see  good  reason  to 
believe  that  we  shall  find  the  vestibule  school 
not  only  the  best  place  to  concentrate  on  habit- 
training,  but  also  the  best  laboratory. 

One  other  type  of  instruction  rarely  resorted 
to  will  prove  to  be  of  help  in  connection  with 
difficulties  arising  out  of  ennui  or  energy  blocks 
ade  or  worry  —  even  out  of  mental  disease. 
There  needs  to  be  developed  a  course  of  study 
in  how  to  look  for  contentment.  Workers 
should  be  constantly  reminded  of  their  right 
and  opportunity  to  be  happy,  constantly  ex- 
horted to  call  upon  the  employees'  service  de- 
partment for  assistance  in  straightening  out 
their  troubles.  There  is  no  situation  in  any 
one's  life  so  painful  but  it  may  be  relieved  in 
some  manner.  It  is  possible  to  adjust  condi- 
tions for  comparative  happiness  even  when  it  is 
necessary  for  long  periods  to  accept  a  handicap 
or  a  privation.  Pernicious  ideals  of  Puritan 

274 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

religious  beliefs  have,  nevertheless,  either  nar- 
rowed the  range  of  inquiry  into  sources  of  hap- 
piness or  ingrained  the  belief  that  sorrow  and 
want  are  the  expected  and  necessary  elements 
in  our  lives.  These  ideals,  of  course,  have  not 
prevented  the  mass  of  people  from  seeking  hap- 
piness —  that  quest  in  most  people  is  irrepres- 
sible. But  they  have  caused  the  effort  to  be 
made  clandestinely,  as  a  search  for  forbidden 
fruit,  like  stealing  one's  own  strawberries  by 
moonlight.  Crime  and  mischief  are  not  the  only 
devious  and  unhappy  results  of  such  an  atti- 
tude. Industry  and  all  the  other  social  institu- 
tions feel  the  effects,  in  terms  of  destructive 
criticism  by  unhappy  individuals  who  do  not 
frankly  recognize  the  more  personal,  the  inter- 
nal, sources  of  their  own  discontent. 

Where  the  cult  of  unhappiness  succeeds  in 
winning  acceptance,  the  result  is  even  more 
unfortunate.  It  produces  a  dead  soul,  without 
further  power  to  react  to  good  suggestion,  with- 
out ambition  to  produce  efficiently,  without 
hope  to  cooperate  in  a  programme  of  public  or 
even  of  family  improvement.  When  a  man  is 
once  convinced  that  he  has  a  bitter  lot,  that 

27s 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

nothing  can  greatly  improve  it,  that  no  person 
greatly  cares  what  becomes  of  him,  and  that 
even  such  religious  advisers  as  he  has  been 
taught  to  accept  consider  his  case  quite  bear- 
able in  their  philosophy  —  and  when  he  does  n't 
any  longer  even  try  to  fight  —  of  what  further 
use  is  he? 

Emotional  troubles  and  mental  diseases  in 
industry,  as  elsewhere,  do  not  necessarily  result 
directly  from  family  troubles,  secret  sin,  or 
deprivation.  They  arise  from  inability  or  re- 
fusal to  recognize  the  cause  and  extent  of  the 
difficulty  and  failure  to  find  disinterested  aid  in 
attacking  it.  Most  people  have  burdens  to 
carry  around  with  them,  but  those  who  know 
how  to  deal  with  them  frankly  know  how  to  be 
happy  in  spite  of  them.  For  no  situation  need 
be  permanent;  we  can  always  adopt  at  least  a 
long-time  programme  of  relief. 

It  is  quite  possible  in  industry  for  manage- 
ment to  educate  workers  to  the  expectation  of 
happiness  and  to  cooperate  with  them  in 
achieving  it.  The  important  thing  is  to  per- 
suade them  to  call  in,  for  advice,  so  that  the 
service  manager  can  help  them.  It  may  be 

276 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

necessary  to  point  out  quite  other  outlets  for 
energy  and  ambition  than  they  at  first  look  for. 
They  may  have  to  be  persuaded  to  scale  down 
their  hopes,  or  lengthen  their  programme,  or 
pay  more  in  terms  of  forbearance  or  of  effort 
than  they  like,  to  obtain  their  happiness.  It  is 
quite  possible,  nevertheless,  to  get  many  dis- 
contented or  inert  folk  started  on  a  constructive 
and  realizable  quest  for  contentment.  That  fac- 
tory is  on  the  road  to  general  mental  health 
where  the  workers  have  been  taught  to  believe 
that  they  have  a  duty  to  cry  out  when  they 
suffer,  and  to  "kick"  when  conditions  get  too 
bad ;  where  operatives  are  convinced  that  their 
bosses  will  help  them  change  things  which  are 
wrong.  Education  for  safety,  therefore,  which 
has  for  its  aim  the  creation  of  safe  emotional 
conditions,  will  not  talk  so  much  about  mangled 
fingers  as  at  present.  It  will  aim  more  at  culti- 
vating a  healthy  refusal  to  be  downhearted. 

The  organized  effort  which  grows  out  of  this 
view  of  education,  naturally,  will  not  confine 
itself  to  the  consideration  of  actual  accidents 
alone,  nor  of  mechanical  safeguards,  and  other 
immediate    problems.    It  will,  rather,  aim  at 

277 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

providing  those  outlets  for  suppressed  emotions 
which  partially  satisfy  starved  desires;  it  will 
try  to  furnish  a  constitutional  means  for 
workers  to  consider  and  adjust  their  own  diffi- 
culties and  complaints.  Social  and  recreational 
organizations  and  shop  committees  have  a  place 
in  the  safety  movement,  even  if  accidents  are 
never  brought  up  in  them  for  discussion. 

Personal  audit  and  adjustment.  After  these 
more  indirect  efforts  for  education  and  organi- 
zation are  well  launched,  however,  there  will  be 
many  persons  who  will  blunder  into  accidents 
for  reasons  intimately  related  to  their  mental 
health.  The  pursuit  of  safety,  therefore,  carries 
us  next  into  the  inner  lives  of  individual  work- 
ers, which  we  enter  as  far  as  may  be  and 
as  necessity  requires.  Not  all  employees,  of 
course,  are  subjected  to  prying  inquiry.  Only 
those  whose  work  and  conduct  indicate  some 
difficulty  which  they  have,  themselves,  been 
unable  to  cope  with,  are  considered  from  this 
point  of  view.  It  would  be  not  only  unfair  to 
the  person  of  normal  status  to  rake  into  his 
personal  affairs,  but  also  vastly  wasteful  of 
278 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

the  investigator's  time  to  examine  ever}-  one. 
Instead,  a  kind  of  perpetual  inventory  of  em- 
ployees can  be  instituted,  a  periodical  survey 
of  significant  facts  which  serve  as  finger-posts 
to  point  the  way  to  closer  investigations  when 
necessary.  The  idea  underlying  this  survey  is 
the  assumption  that  normal  minds  produce 
normal  results,  and  that,  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, when  a  worker  keeps  up  on  his  job,  we 
may  assume  that  he  is  in  good  mental  health. 
Only  when  he  begins  to  fall  down,  especially 
when  he  drops  below  his  own  normal,  should 
we  look  into  his  situation  more  closely.  When 
piece-work  payment  has  been  introduced,  there 
is  usually  a  record  of  daily  production  which 
may  be  consulted.  It  is  easy  to  plot  curves  for 
a  period  showing  the  rise  and  fall  of  daily  out- 
put against  a  curve  for  the  normal,  and  a  line 
can  be  indicated  which  calls  for  investigation 
whenever  the  production  curve  touches  or  falls 
below  it.  Then,  too,  a  normal  rate  of  sickness 
—  lower  for  men  than  for  women  —  can  be 
indicated  and  a  physical  examination  may  be 
ordered  if  absence  on  account  of  illness  exceeds 
expectation.  There  will  be  also  an  expectancy 

279 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

index  for  accidents  on  each  operation.  It  may 
exceed  200  per  cent  a  year  for  electricians  and 
fall  far  below  100  per  cent  for  other  operations. 
Therefore,  when  a  given  individual  exceeds  the 
index  figure  for  his  operation  the  employees' 
service  department  is  justified  in  examining 
more  closely  into  his  intelligence,  his  training, 
his  emotional  situation.  The  quality  record, 
the  record  of  waste,  the  machine  stoppages,  the 
discipline  record  relative  to  quarrels,  insubor- 
dination, and  attendance  —  these  are  some  of 
the  other  finger-posts  which  will  serve  to  guide 
further  inquiries  into  mental  health.  If  the 
normals  have  been  wisely  determined,  and  each 
employee  is  daily  measured  against  the  stand- 
ard and  against  his  own  previous  record,  de- 
viations will  be  highly  significant.  Any  emo- 
tional disturbance,  or  lack  of  interest  even,  will 
show  up  in  one  or  more  of  these  records  long 
before  conditions  get  bad  enough  to  lead  to 
accidents.  The  perpetual  personnel  inventory, 
therefore,  can  be  used  to  forestall  accidents  if 
the  follow-up  and  individual  adjustment  are 
promptly  and  wisely  undertaken. 
With  such  indications  of  trouble  to  guide  us, 
280 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

we  need  have  no  qualms  about  making  intimate 
investigations  of  the  cause.  Even  in  cases  of 
maladjustment,  however,  it  is  better  to  make 
no  inquiry  at  all  unless  it  is  done  in  a  friendly 
and  sympathetic  fashion,  with  a  mind  to  offer 
help.  The  sole  purpose  of  a  mental  hygiene 
study,  therefore,  is  to  discover  the  causes  of  an 
obscure  trouble  which  the  victim  cannot  deal 
with  himself,  and  to  help  remove  it.  It  is  not 
always  necessary  to  go  into  "personal  affairs" 
at  all.  The  trouble,  though  baffling  to  the  sub- 
ject, may  be  quite  superficial,  a  thing  so  simple 
as  may  be  solved  by  increasing  the  wattage  of 
a  light  bulb,  placing  a  rubber  mat  under  a  work- 
man's feet  on  a  cement  work  floor,  or  raising 
the  height  of  a  chair.  The  true  mental  hygienist 
never  goes  further  than  is  necessary  to  effect  a 
cure.  Nature  never  expends  any  more  energy 
than  is  necessary  to  accomplish  a  given  purpose, 
and  a  true  scientist,  who  is  a  servant  of  nature, 
always  contents  himself  with  the  simplest  ex- 
planation which  will  account  for  a  phenomenon, 
and  the  simplest  means  which  will  bring  it 
under  control.  The  individual  adjustment, 
therefore,  as  a  remedy  for  mental  accident 
281 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

hazards,  is  a  procedure  for  seeking  out  the  suf- 
ficient cause  and  the  sufficient  cure. 

A  fall  in  production  may  be  due  to  poor  ma- 
terial, tools,  or  machine  maintenance;  it  may 
be  due  to  failure  to  furnish  materials  promptly 
or  some  other  failure  of  management.  If  so, 
inquiry  into  the  cause  will  be  abundantly  justi- 
fied even  if  it  reveals  no  unhealthy  situation  in 
the  worker's  attitude.  Where  it  is  his  failure, 
the  inquiry  may  result  in  a  needed  shift  of 
work,  or  the  adjustment  of  some  troublesome 
personal  situation  which  has  caused  worry, 
preoccupation,  sleeplessness,  or  ill-health  — 
any  of  which  is  dangerous.  Sometimes  it  may 
be  due  to  strain,  or  so-called  "fatigue,"  pro- 
duced unnecessarily  by  uncomfortable  chairs, 
poor  lighting,  or  too  steady  application,  and  it 
will  be  possible  to  rectify  any  of  these  condi- 
tions. 

Absenteeism,  excessive  waste,  quarrels,  and 
insubordination  may  all  be  indicative  of  emo- 
tional situations  which  may  have  very  remote 
causes.  Investigation  of  these  usually  leads 
outside  of  the  factory,  and  the  adjustment  may 
be  quite  beyond  the  power  of  the  service  man. 

282 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

Usually  it  will  be  possible  to  be  helpful,  how- 
ever, if  the  employee  can  be  persuaded  to  open 
up  and  discuss  motives  and  ways  out  and  can 
be  led  to  deal  rationally  with  his  worry.  Some- 
times the  trouble  will  have  progressed  to  the 
point  of  actual  mental  disease.  When  this  is  so, 
the  subject  will  be  generally  ignorant,  himself, 
of  the  source  of  the  disturbance.  Diagnosis  and 
treatment  of  such  cases  is  the  job  of  a  specialist, 
and  the  employees'  service  worker  in  a  factory 
who  finds  himself  baffled  by  the  attitude  and 
other  manifestations  of  the  victim  of  mental 
disease  should  call  in  the  assistance  of  a  trained 
psychiatrist,  or  send  the  employee  to  a  psycho- 
pathic hospital. 

The  accident  post-mortem.  The  final  remedy 
for  mental  accident  hazards  is  the  constant  im- 
provement of  technique  which  may  be  gained 
by  investigating  the  reasons  for  our  failures. 
Every  accident  which  does  happen  is  due  to  the 
ineffectiveness  of  our  methods  or  our  work  un- 
dertaken to  prevent  it.  We  should  give  it  at 
least  an  educational  value,  by  an  accident 
"  post-mortem."  With  our  safety  committee  as- 
283 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

sembled,  we  go  over  each  case,  reviewing  the 
circumstances  of  the  accident,  and  inquiring 
one  by  one  into  the  various  mental  factors 
which  might  have  caused  it.  In  the  chart  I  have 
tried  to  list  under  "post-mortems"  the  main 
sources  of  information  with  regard  to  the  differ- 
ent possible  mental  causes  of  the  accidents. 
The  questions  which  ought  to  be  asked  are 
given  below.  A  study  of  this  list  will  indicate 
some  of  the  factors  which  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered also,  in  making  personal  adjustments. 

QUESTIONNAIRE   FOR  MENTAL   "  POST-MORTEM" 
ON  ACCIDENT  CASES 

In  appraising  the  mental  condition  of  each 
victim  of  an  accident,  consider  assignment, 
training,  adjustment,  physical  condition,  and 
emotional  situation. 

/.  Assignment 

1.  Is  he  a  "repeater?"  i.e.,  prone  to  accident:' 

2.  Does  the  subject  understand  plain  instructions 
readily.?  Does  he  speak  English? 

3.  Has  he  intelligence  enough  for  the  job? 

4.  Is  he  physically  adapted  to  the  job? 

5.  Has  he  adequate  sense  endowment  for  the  job; 
i.e.,  is  he  too  slow,  too  lacking  in  precision  of 
movement,  is  he  hard  of  hearing,  or  has  he  poor 
vision? 

284 


ACCIDENT  HYGIENE 

//.  Training 

6.  How  long  has  he  been  on  the  job?  What  is  his 
chance  of  accident  for  this  length  of  employ- 
ment? 

7.  What  regular  habits  are  necessary  for  the  safe 
conduct  of  this  particular  job? 

8.  What  habit  training  has  the  victim  so  far  had 
for  his  job?  What  improvement  should  be  un- 
dertaken? 

9.  What  mental  approach  is  best  in  undertaking 
instruction  of  this  particular  worker? 

///.  Adjustment 

A.  Job  Situation 

10.  Is  the  man  earning  a  wage  sufficient  to  keep 
him  in  comfort  and  fair  contentment?  Con- 
sider whether  the  job  permits  this. 

11.  Has  he  lately  fallen  behind  his  usual  earnings, 
for  any  reason? 

12.  Has  he  been  turning  out  a  satisfactory  quality 
of  work? 

13.  Has  he  had  any  trouble  with  foreman  or  fellow 
workers? 

B,  Attitude  , 

14.  Has  he  any  mental  attitude  of  resistance  to  the 
guidance  of  the  management?  Does  he  co- 
operate in  carrying  out  instructions?  Is  he 
open-minded  to  new  ideas?  Is  he  unduly  su- 
perstitious? 

15.  Has  he  any  constitutional  bravado  and  reck- 
lessness? 

16.  Has  he  any  "pose"  inconsistent  with  safe  prac- 
tices? 

17.  Is  he  enthusiastic  about  his  job?  If  not,  how 
coukl  he  be  made  so? 

18.  Has  he  a  basis  for  hope  of  persL.nal  distinction 
and  advancement  in  his  work?  If  not,  what 
could  implant  such  a  hope? 

28s 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

C  Personal  Situation 

19.  Has  he  illness  or  any  other  crisis  at  home? 

20.  So  far  as  properly  may  be  determined,  has  he  a 
normal  sex-life?  ^ 

21.  Is  he  suffering  from  any  undue  burden  of  debt 
or  other  financial  worry.^ 

22.  Is  there  any  occasion  for  him  to  fear  or  brood 
over  legal  or  other  personal  complications  such 
as  quarrels  or  thwarted  ambitions  or  desires? 

IV.  Physical  Condition 

23.  Was  the  man  ill  at  the  time  of  the  accident? 
Or  recently.? 

24.  Has  he  suffered  from  any  organic  impairment 
affecting  his  efficiency? 

25.  Was  the  man  overworked  or  overstrained  at 
the  time  of  the  accident? 

26.  Were  conditions  of  ventilation,  illumination, 
heating,  etc.,  such  as  to  cause  depression? 

27.  Is  there  undue  noise  and  disorder  in  connection 
with  his  work? 

28.  Was  there  any  confusion  of  orders,  change  of 
work  or  discord  to  distract  his  attention? 

V.  Immediate  Emotional  Situation 

29.  Was  the  victim  unduly  excited  or  noticeably 
depressed  at  the  time  of  the  accident? 

30.  Had  anything  happened  to  anger,  frighten, 
discourage,  or  distress  him? 

31.  Is  he  considered,  by  his  associates,  mentally 
sound? 

*  Owing  to  the  comparative  simplicity  and  lack  of  reserve, 
privacy,  and  concealment  among  factory  workers,  confession  or 
reputation  and  rumor  often  pretty  accurately  reveal  whether  a  man 
is  "peculiar,"  or  unhappy  in  his  relations  with  women,  or  con- 
templating divorce,  desertion,  and  the  like. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  SELF-GUIDED  APPROACH  TO 
PSYCHOLOGY 

Confusing  the  uninitiated.  "What  is  a  good 
book  to  read  on  psychology?" 

This  question  has  been  asked  of  the  writer 
frequently,  during  the  last  year  or  two,  by  ex- 
ecutives in  industry.  They  have  seen  many 
books  and  articles  on  the  psychology  of  man- 
agement, the  psychology  of  selling,  and  the 
psychology  of  this,  that,  and  the  other  thing, 
and  they  have  been  led  to  wonder  if  there 
were  n*t,  somewhere,  a  psychology  of  psychol- 
ogy; that  is,  a  real  science  of  the  mind  which 
they  could  apply  for  themselves.  Doubtless, 
safety  engineers  who  wish  to  go  further  into  the 
psychology  of  safety  than  this  provisional  essay 
has  carried  them  will  also  echo  the  call  for  an 
up-to-date  textbook. 

At  first  blush,  the  demand  for  a  single  book 
to  "read"  on  the  subject  seems  to  belittle  the 
importance  of  so  fundamental  a  science.  A  stu- 

287 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

dent  in  touch  with  the  wide  range  of  the  litera- 
ture of  psychology,  especially  one  accustomed 
to  the  selective  process  of  reading  for  significant 
contributions  —  winnowing  the  new  and  vital 
by  each  author  out  of  the  mass  of  repetitions  of 
old  theories,  rewritings  of  other  authors  and  un- 
inspired padding  which  make  up  most  texts  — 
would  hesitate  to  rely  upon  any  one  writer  on 
mental  phenomena.  In  response  to  the  query 
for  a  good  treatise  on  psychology,  therefore,  I 
glance  at  the  precious  titles  in  front  of  me,  and 
the  temptation  is  to  reply:  "You  must  read 
thirty-five!" 

There  is  an  element  of  reason,  however,  in 
the  request.  A  novice  has  to  begin  with  some 
choice,  and  he  naturally  wishes  his  first  book 
on  psychology  to  do  three  things:  to  talk  to  him 
in  language  which  he  can  understand  and  which 
will  interest  him;  to  give  him  a  complete  pic- 
ture of  the  scope  of  the  subject ;  and  to  give  him 
some  useful  knowledge  which  stands,  so  to 
speak,  on  its  own  legs,  without  reference  to 
other  reading,  so  that,  if  he  never  finds  time 
for  another  book  on  psychology,  at  least  he  has 
gained  something. 

288 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

However  reasonable  this  desire  may  be,  it  is 
extremely  hard  to  satisfy  it.  In  the  first  place, 
the  experts  are  not  yet  agreed  on  what  consti- 
tutes psychology;  each  is  likely,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  treat  a  part  of  the  field  as  if  it  were  the 
entire  content  of  the  subject,  and  each  is 
tempted,  on  the  other  hand,  to  adopt  a  partial 
explanation  of  human  conduct  and  apply  it  too 
widely.  In  other  words,  there  are  "schools" 
of  psychology,  rather  than  a  science;  and  the 
naive  inquirer  finds  himself  as  much  puzzled  by 
the  various  points  of  view  as  a  Chinese  student 
of  Christian  religion  when  confronted  with  two 
hundred  sects. 

Again,  the  majority  of  textbooks  are  not  writ- 
ten for  the  voluntary  student,  the  intelligent, 
mature  layman  who  is  led  to  the  subject  by  an 
already  aroused  interest.  They  are  either  de- 
signed for  college  students  who  have  signed  up 
for  a  course,  and  who  will,  therefore,  have  to 
stick  to  it  through  thick  and  thin,  whether  it 
interests  them  or  not,  or  else  they  are  written 
for  other  psychologists  in  lingo  which  goes  way 
over  the  head  of  a  merely  educated  man.  The 
voluntary  student  can  voluntarily  drop  the 

289 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

subject.  Therefore,  a  book  worthy  of  holdings 
his  attention  will  begin  with  his  initial  inter- 
ests —  the  practical  incentive  side  of  the  sub- 
ject and  gradually  work  back  into  an  analysis 
of  fundamentals.  The  layman  approaches  psy- 
chology, if  at  all,  because  he  is  interested  in 
complex  human  conduct.  He  wants  a  better  ex- 
planation of  the  motives  underlying  it,  in  order 
that  he  can  better  predict  the  effects  of  his  own 
actions  on  others.  To  get  a  sufficient  expla- 
nation to  be  of  help,  of  course,  he  must  be 
initiated  into  elementary  things  which  are  so 
simple,  viewed  by  themselves,  that  they  ex- 
plain nothing  about  conduct.  But,  before  he 
gets  into  those  details,  he  needs  to  be  led  along 
gradually,  from  applied  mental  formulae  to 
mental  phenomena,  from  complex  motives,  then, 
to  dominant  motives,  and  from  these  back  to 
basic  desires,  inherited  tendencies,  and  physi- 
cal traits  and  impulses.  He  wishes  to  be  led 
from  the  known  to  the  unknown. 

What  he  gets,  however,  when  he  approaches 
an  elementary  textbook,  is  a  preliminary  dis- 
cussion of  "receptors,"  "stimuli,"  "the  cere- 
bro-spinal  system,"  "the  neurones,"  "synap- 

290 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

ses,"  and  other  unintelligible  terms,  which  seem 
to  have  no  bearing  upon  conduct.  If  he  stays 
by  the  subject  until  he  obtains  some  under- 
standing of  these  items,  he  is  likely  to  forget 
why  he  took  it  up ;  and,  like  as  not,  the  author 
never  arrives,  even  at  the  end  of  the  book,  at 
any  discussion  of  everyday  problems. 

There  are,  it  is  true,  many  writers  who  ignore 
all  of  these  fundamentals  and  leap  directly  into 
vital  questions.  And  they  do  get  themselves 
read.  Generally,  however,  they  neglect  the 
basic  facts  of  psychology  because  they  don't 
know  them.  Even  a  layman  feels  the  insub- 
stantial character  of  their  assertions,  I  have  my 
own  particular  black-list,  of  fair-seeming,  de- 
lightful books  that  mislead  the  unwary.  Semi- 
religious,  semi-new-thought,  semi-scientific  es- 
says head  the  list.  "How  to  be  Good,  though 
Human,"  "How  to  Get  Results  without  Ac- 
tion," "How  to  Win  God  without  Worship," 
might  be  representative  titles  of  this  type  of 
book.  The  shelves  are  laden  nowadays  with 
so-called  psychological  books  that  seem  to 
promise  something  for  nothing  —  mere  mental 
witchcraft.  Consider  for  a  moment  the  purport 

291 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

and  promise  of  such  literature.  Fancy  a  nation 
sitting  down  in  a  still  unconquered  continent, 
and  all  seeking  riches  in  a  time  of  depression 
and  health  in  a  time  of  pestilence,  by  mutter- 
ing, "I  am  abundance;  I  am  all-power,  I  am  all- 
strength!" 

Next  on  the  black-list  comes  the  type  of  ap- 
plied psychology  which  deals  with  the  subject 
as  if  it  were  a  bag  of  tricks  or  mechanisms,  to  be 
utilized  without  understanding,  first  in  one 
field  and  then  in  another.  Psychology,  for  in- 
stance, does  apply  to  the  law,  to  court  proce- 
dure even,  but  not  as  this  type  of  psychologist 
would  have  it,  not  mainly  as  a  third-degree 
routine  for  tricking  criminals  into  betraying 
themselves,  but  rather  as  a  discipline  for  un- 
derstanding and  curing  wayward  impulses.  It 
does  apply  to  advertising  and  selling,  not 
mainly  as  a  form  of  hypnotic  suggestion  to  per- 
suade consumers  to  buy  what  they  don't  want, 
but  rather  as  a  means  of  eliminating  waste- 
ful misunderstandings  of  popular  desires  and 
needs.  It  does  apply  to  factory  management, 
not  mainly  as  a  smart  propaganda  for  getting 
workers  to  give  more  than  they  are  paid  for, 
292 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

and  to  cheer  for  bosses  whom  they  ought  to 
detest,  but  rather  as  a  help  in  the  redistribu- 
tion of  human  talent,  and  as  an  aid  to  the  con- 
servation of  natural  human  happiness. 

Finally,  there  is  another  section  of  the  black- 
list reserved  for  psychologists  whom  I  cannot 
understand.  There  are  reputable  texts  written 
by  famous  authorities  that  manage  to  obscure 
the  subject  of  the  human  mind  as  thoroughly 
as  if  they  were  discussing  the  inward  thoughts 
of  Buddha.  They  use  plain  English  words  in  as 
unintelligible  an  arrangement  as  a  free-verse 
poem.  I  have  before  me  a  text  on  human  na- 
ture and  conduct  which  philosophizes  for  three 
hundred-odd  pages  about  conduct,  without 
mention  of  a  single  case  of  human  activity. 
The  reader,  to  follow  the  author's  conclusions, 
must  supply  from  his  own  imagination  all  the 
subject-matter  under  discussion!  In  this  in- 
stance, the  author,  an  admirable  and  inspiring 
personality,  with  a  penetrating  insight  into  the 
mind  and  a  highly  creative  intellect,  obscures 
himself  from  the  man  in  the  street,  like  the  sun 
behind  a  London  fog. 

When  it  is  possible  to  find  so  many  kinds  of 
293 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

psychologies,  therefore,  as  I  have  indicated,  the 
layman's  request  for  advice  in  the  selection  of  a 
text  is  well-advised.  It  seems  probable  that  the 
readers  of  this  discussion  on  accidents  will,  in 
the  majority  of  cases,  be  unfamiliar  with  mod- 
ern psychologies.  Safety  men,  foremen  of  de- 
partments, students  of  industry,  employment 
managers,  and  others  who  are  interested  in  ac- 
cident prevention  are  not  generally  informed 
on  the  subject,  particularly  since  Professor  Wil- 
liam James  ceased  to  write.  For  such  inquirers, 
therefore,  as  a  fellow  layman,  and  with  more 
than  apparent  reluctance,  I  offer  my  own 
opinions  on  the  subject. 

A  briefer  course  in  psychology.  If  a  single  book 
is  demanded,  I  know  of  no  clearer  and  more  ac- 
ceptable text  than  Professor  Howard  C.  War- 
ren's "Human  Psychology."  An  alternative 
suggestion  worth  considering  would  be  Robert 
S.  Woodworth's  "Psychology,  A  Study  of 
Mental  Life,"  which  makes  a  similar  approach 
in  a  simple  and  readable  way.  It  is  somewhat 
less  comprehensive,  however,  than  Warren's 
text,  which  offers  intelligible  explanations  for  a 
294 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

wider  range  of  facts  about  behavior  than  any 
one  other  book  I  have  seen.  Doubtless  it  is  a 
bit  of  a  transition  phase.  Warren  touches  hands 
with  William  James,  of  the  older,  introspective 
psychology,  upon  the  method  of  which  it  relies 
mainly  for  its  description  of  mental  phenomena. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  to  depend  for  its 
explanations  of  these  facts,  not  upon  what  one 
learns  by  looking  into  one's  own  mind,  but  upon 
what  we  conclude  from  the  study  of  others.  In 
this  it  accepts  also  the  method  of  inquiry  de- 
veloped most  fully  by  Professor  John  B.  Wat- 
son in  his  "  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of 
a  Behaviorist."  This  method  emphasizes  the 
physiological  side,  and  draws  its  conclusions 
from  external  observations. 

This  two-angle  approach  of  Warren's  is  of 
great  value  to  the  voluntary  student  because 
the  layman  knows  the  mind,  if  at  all,  chiefly 
from  the  introspective  view,  and  a  description 
which  uses  familiar  concepts  about  the  mind 
makes  it  easier  to  follow  the  author  into  the 
explanations.  These  may  then  be  in  any  vo- 
cabulary the  teacher  wishes  to  employ,  for  we 
have  fewer  preconceptions  about  what  actuates 

295 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

the  mind  and  of  what  it  is  constituted.  Pro- 
fessor Watson,  a  lOO  per  cent  behaviorist,  finds 
that  he  "  can  get  along  without  such  terms,  in 
good  repute,  as  sensation,  perception,  atten- 
tion, will,  image,  and  the  like."  The  reader, 
however,  unless  he  be  already  familiar  enough 
with  psychology  to  be  interested  in  a  special 
treatment  of  it,  cannot  dispense  with  such  thor- 
oughly domesticated  terms.  The  behavioristic 
psychologist  in  course  of  time  may  render  them 
superfluous,  but  at  present  they  are  the  only 
means  of  contact  with  the  lay  mind.  Watson 
may  be  the  psychologist  of  the  future,  but  if  so, 
then  Warren  and  Woodworth  are  his  prophets ; 
they  give  the  student  the  signs,  grips,  and  pass- 
words to  the  first  degree  in  psychology. 

Let  me  hasten  to  say  of  Warren's  and  Wood- 
worth's  books,  however,  that,  while  either  of 
them  fills  most  of  the  requirements  of  a  single 
book  study  of  the  subject,  each  is,  nevertheless, 
as  an  answer  to  the  voluntary  student's  query, 
disappointing  in  two  respects.  They  do  hold  off 
the  layman  in  his  quest  for  explanations  of  be- 
havior by  a  long,  initial  description  of  the  physi- 
ology of  response  —  the  nervous  system,  the 
296 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

special  senses,  etc.,  and  they  do  stop  far  short 
of  any  adequate  discussion  of  conduct.  They 
take  most  of  their  space  to  analyze  and  then 
build  up  the  complete  mind.  Only  one  eighth 
of  Warren's  text,  and  only  one  chapter  of 
Woodworth's,  is  devoted  to  a  description  and 
explanation  of  attitudes,  personality,  charac- 
ter, and  organized  mental  life,  which  are  the 
sources  of  the  layman's  initial  interest  in  the 
subject.  Little  is  given  us  about  the  energy  of 
the  mind  —  the  innate  drive  of  desires,  emo- 
tions, and  feelings  which  represent  the  indi- 
vidual's momentum  in  life.  Almost  no  hint  is 
furnished  as  to  how  the  mind  adapts  itself  to 
the  instigations  or  repressions  of  people,  insti- 
tutions, and  conditions  in  the  environment. 
The  whole  problem  of  adjustment,  the  accom- 
modation between  individual  purpose  and  ex- 
ternal factors,  is  left  untouched. 

There  is  a  good  recent  book  devoted  almost 
wholly  to  this  part  of  the  story,  which  Warren 
and  Woodworth  deal  with  so  lightly.  In  "The 
New  Psychology  and  Its  Relation  to  Life," 
A.  G.  Tansley  gives  a  readable  summary  of  the 
modern  theories  advanced  to  explain  conduct. 
297 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

This  book  has  been  very  much  praised,  and  has 
quickly  run  into  five  editions.  It  is  suggestive, 
at  least,  and,  if  the  cautious  reader  will  consent 
to  take  on  one  more  book,  perhaps  this  ought 
to  be  the  second  one.  I  am  bound  to  say,  how- 
ever, that  it  reveals  a  very  "  classical "  attitude 
toward  the  physical  basis  of  the  mind.  It  clings 
to  the  old  idea  of  the  dualism  of  mind  and 
brain,  and  treats  the  mind  as  a  thing  separate 
from  the  physical  organism  —  "a  self-con- 
tained entity,  with  its  own  laws,  distinct  from 
those  of  the  brain  and  nervous  system."  It 
considers  the  mind  as  "possessing  structure, 
activities,  distinct  parts  and  functions,  because 
that  is  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  proceed 
to  find  out  about  it."  It  seems  to  be  rather  the 
way  not  to  find  out  about  it.  But  let  that  pass ; 
for  the  value  of  Tansley's  book  is  not  in  its  ex- 
planations, but  in  its  descriptions  in  the  field  of 
motivations.  Behavioristic  psychologists  usu- 
ally stop  short  of  treating  social  conduct  thor- 
oughly because  they  have  not  seen  their  way 
clear  to  explain  it.  They  cannot  reduce  it  to 
the  simple,  physical  terms  which  answer  for 
responses  to  the  natural  (impersonal)  environ- 
298 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

ment.  Dr.  E.  B.  Holt,  in  his  book  "The  Freud- 
ian Wish,"  makes  a  valiant  attempt  to  do  so, 
but  the  basis  for  the  attempt  seems  to  be  not 
yet  safely  established.  For  this  reason,  in  re- 
garding the  mind  and  body  as  separate  things, 
with  separate  functions,  Tansley  may  be  as 
dualistic  as  he  likes,  without  any  one's  being 
able  to  controvert  him.  He  passes  over  that 
section  of  psychology,  the  responsive  equip- 
ment, in  which  dualism  would  be  confusing,  and 
gives  his  attention  to  the  active  faculties.  Here 
the  bodily  changes  and  responses  are  not  always 
made  evident  to  observation,  and  the  phenom- 
ena are  chiefly  known  through  introspection, 
or  through  mutual  confidences.  It  is  entirely 
legitimate  to  prospect  into  the  little  understood, 
imperfectly  explained  reaches  of  the  mind  by 
first  sounding  our  own  consciousness,  and  to  let 
the  physiological  proofs  and  explanations  come 
along  as  they  can.  Professor  James,  for  in- 
stance, first,  by  subjective  processes,  described 
the  influence  of  emotions  upon  energy  output. 
Later,  Dr.  Cannon  ^  came  along  with  his  labc^ 

^  Walter  B.  Cannon,  M.  D.,  Bodily  Changes  in  Pain, 
Hunger^  Fear,  and  Rage.    Philadelphia.    1915. 

299 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

ratory  studies  of  the  glands  of  internal  secre- 
tion, and  explained  the  effects  of  emotions  upon 
the  secretion  of  adrenalin,  and  the  stimulating 
effect  of  this  chemical  upon  the  circulation. 
Here  was  a  definite  step  by  which  one  aspect 
of  psychology  was  taken  over,  in  part,  from  the 
subjective  to  the  behavioristic  mode  of  inter- 
pretation. 

There  is  no  great  difficulty  for  the  student, 
therefore,  in  reading  two  books  on  psychology 
of  such  different  approach  as  those  of  Warren 
and  Tansley.  The  one  analyzes  the  mind  in  its 
simple  physical  elements,  and  treats  of  its  re- 
sponses mainly  to  impersonal  stimulus  — 
things  seen,  heard,  touched ;  and,  when  it  deals 
with  personal  relations,  considers  mainly  the 
permanent  physical  impressions  taken  from 
these  contacts  —  the  development  of  instincts 
and  the  formation  of  habits.  The  other  book 
considers  the  personal  relations  at  the  moment 
of  contact  and  the  manner  in  which  the  in- 
herited modes  of  response,  instincts,  and  habits 
come  into  play.  It  lays  particular  stress  upon 
the  internal  drive  of  the  human  organism  to 
achieve  certain  selfish  purposes,  exercise  the  sex 
300 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

impulse  and  otherwise  carry  on  the  vital  func- 
tions abundantly.  To  lay  the  two  books  side 
by  side  in  this  fashion  is  all  that  is  required  to 
make  clear  the  fact  that  neither  treatment  of 
psychology  is  complete  without  the  other. 

If  the  reader  can  be  led  patiently  to  absorb 
the  rounded  view  of  the  mental  life  gained  by 
these  texts,  he  will  have  acquired  a  workable 
theory  of  psychology  and  may  begin  to  make 
his  own  applications  in  a  limited  way.  His  use 
of  psychology  will  be  sounder  on  this  founda- 
tion of  general  knowledge  than  any  parrot-like 
adoption  of  particular  mechanisms  of  "applied 
psychology,"  such  as  mental  tests,  or  the  revi- 
sion of  advertising  copy  in  accordance  with  a 
list  of  presumed  human  "  instincts." 

The  full  scope  of  psychology.  It  is  to  be  hoped, 
however,  that,  when  he  has  come  thus  far,  the 
student  will  recognize  that  the  instruction 
which  he  can  get  from  any  two  books  is  not 
sufficient  for  a  subject  which  attempts  to  ex- 
plain all  of  the  reasons  for  human  conduct.  He 
should  contemplate  a  longer  and  still  more 
thorough-going  treatment  of  the  subject.  For 

301 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

such  a  purpose  let  me  outline  what  seems  to 
me  to  be  a  logical  subdivision  of  psychology 
and  suggest  a  good  short  list  of  books  to  ex- 
pound them. 

The  basic  views  of  general  psychology  may 
be  set  forth  in  several  affirmations: 

1.  The  mental  life  is  a  mode  of  behavior,  of  an- 
cient origin,  evolved  out  of  the  experiences 
of  past  ages,  as  controlled  mainly  by  the  in- 
fluence of  geographic  environment. 

2.  The  mind  is  a  physical  organism,  consisting 
of  the  body,  as  acting  on,  responding  to, 
and  molded  by,  the  environment.  It  has  a 
limited  equipment  for  action,  and  fixed 
modes  of  response,  both  of  which  are  typi- 
cally and  somewhat  predictably  altered  or 
developed  in  the  course  of  a  lifetime  by  the 
pressure  of  the  environment. 

3.  The  mind  has  also  a  positive  energy  which 
seeks  to  effect  its  own  ends  with  the  greatest 
possible  economy  of  means. 

4.  The  effort  to  achieve  individual  purposes  in 
cooperation  or  conflict  with  other  persons 
requires  a  process  of  adjustment.  In  propor- 
tion as  the  mind  is  successful  by  adjust- 
ments in  achieving  satisfaction  of  these  vital 
purposes,  the  organism  is  free  to  go  on  seek- 
ing its  ends.  In  proportion  as  it  is  unsuccess- 
ful in  making  adjustments,  the  thwarting  of 
vital  purposes  leads  to  the  formation  of  new 

302 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

aims  —  either  voluntary  or  involuntary,  sane 
or  insane  —  or  the  total  suppression  of  these 
purposes. 

The  first  of  these  affirmations  is  dealt  with 
chiefly  by  what  is  known  as  "genetic  psychol- 
ogy" —  a  study  of  the  origin  of  the  mind.  The 
second  is  partly  covered  by  the  term  "descrip- 
tive psychology"  —  the  study  of  the  present 
condition  of  the  mind.  Relative  to  the  third,  at 
present,  there  is  no  recognized  branch  of  psy- 
chology dealing  solely  or  adequately  with  the 
energy  of  the  mind,  although  the  psycho- 
analysts—  the  Freudian  school  —  were  the 
first  to  emphasize  the  significance  of  positive, 
inherent  impulses.  We  shall  call  this  "dynamic 
psychology."^  The  fourth  affirmation  is  dealt 
with  by  two  main  subdivisions  of  inquiry,  "  so- 
cial psychology,"  which  is  the  study  of  normal 
adjustments  and  conduct  of  the  mind,  in  con- 
tact with  other  people,  and  "abnormal  psy- 
chology," which  is  a  description  of  the  by-ways 
and  effects  of  maladjustment.  There  is  need  of 
an  inclusive  treatment  of  the  two  branches 

^  Professor  R.  S.  Woodworth  dealt  with  a  portion  of  the 
field  under  the  title  of  "Dynamic  Psychology"  (New  York, 
1918),  a  developifnent  of  his  Jesup  Lectures  for  1916-17. 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

under  the  term  "adjustment  psychology";  for, 
strictly  speaking,  while  there  may  be  abnormal 
relations,  there  is  no  abnormal  psychology. 
The  best  treatment  of  adjustments  is  usually 
found  based  upon  premises  concerning  dynamic 
psychology,  in  writings  on  psychiatry,  which, 
as  a  science,  began  by  being  something  much 
more  restricted  —  a  study  of  insanity  from  the 
medical  point  of  view.  As  psychiatry  passed 
over  from  helpless  classification  of  the  types  of 
mental  disease  to  open-minded  efforts  at  pre- 
vention and  cure,  it  extended  the  scope  of  its 
inquiry,  until  now  it  embraces  more  of  psy- 
chology in  its  purview  than  any  other  one 
branch,  and  it  heads  up  with  emphasis  upon 
adjustment,  under  the  term  "mental  hygiene." 

Let  us  briefly  consider  some  of  the  aspects 
and  literature  of  each  of  these  four  main 
branches  of  psychology. 

Relative  to  the  origin  of  the  mind,  one  can 
get  in  a  single  chapter  of  Robinson's  "The 
Mind  in  the  Making"  a  good  picture  of  the 
effects  of  the  evolutionary  history  of  the  mind. 
He  pictures  the  animal,  savage,  infantile,  and 
traditional  phases  of  the  mind,  which  ante- 

304 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

dated  creative  thinking,  which  still  exist  in  our 
minds,  and  which  generally  influence  us  more 
definitely  than  do  direct  observation  and  rea- 
soning. Those  who  wish  to  pursue  this  subject 
more  deeply  may  read  William  MacPherson's 
"Psychology  of  Persuasion"  and  L.  T.  Hob- 
house's  "Mind  in  Evolution."  For  a  study  of 
animal  psychology,  the  layman  is  likely  to  find 
most  interest  in  reading  a  book  such  as  William 
T.  Hornaday's  "The  Minds  and  Manners 
of  Wild  Animals."  It  is  defective  in  its  basis 
of  human  psychology  —  it  even  reveals  the 
author's  acceptance  of  phrenology  —  but  we 
may  safely  read  his  accurate  observations, 
based  upon  unusual  facilities.  There  is  less 
interest  in  a  more  authoritative  text,  such  as 
S.  J.  Holmes's  "Studies  in  Animal  Behavior," 
or  C.  L.  Morgan's  "Animal  Life  and  Intelli- 
gence." 

A  useful  and  generally  fascinating  treatment 
of  the  development  of  savage  ideas  and  customs 
will  be  found  in  William  I.  Thomas's  compila- 
tion of  papers  under  the  title  "Source  Book  for 
Social  Origins."  It  treats  of  the  influence  of 
geography,  of  the  nature  of  the  mind  of  primi- 

30s 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

tive  man,  and  of  the  beginnings  of  invention 
and  technology  of  customs  of  sex  and  marriage, 
of  ideas  of  art,  ornament,  and  decoration,  and 
of  the  institution  of  religion,  social  organiza- 
tions, morals,  and  the  state.  To  round  out  the 
appreciation  of  mental  evolution  acquired  from 
such  texts  as  the  preceding,  one  should  give 
consideration  to  the  continuing  effects  of  the 
material  environment,  in  the  present  day, 
by  studying  such  a  work  as  Maria  Semple's 
"  Influences  ofGeographic  Environment,"  or  the 
more  recent,  more  popular,  "Human  Geog- 
raphy," of  Huntington  and  Cushing.  A  valu- 
able summary  of  several  branches  of  genetic 
psychology  is  Carl  Kelsey's  "The  Physical 
Basis  of  Society." 

On  the  subject  of  "descriptive  psychology," 
it  is  important  first  to  say  that  it  tends  to  be 
always  less  concerned  with  mere  description. 
Its  development  is  away  from  self-conscious 
analysis,  of  a  philosophical  nature,  and  in  the 
direction  of  conformity  with  the  general  body 
of  physical  sciences  —  physics,  chemistry,  and 
physiology.  It  aims  to  bring  psychology  under 
universal  laws.  In  order  to  be  prepared  ade- 
306 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

quately  to  understand  such  texts  on  descriptive 
psychology  as  those  of  Warren  and  Watson, 
which  I  have  cited,  one  should  know  something 
of  the  more  basic  sciences.  A  good  deal  of  what 
the  psychologists  need  in  these  departments 
may  be  found  in  Professor  Ernest  N.  Starling's 
"  Principles  of  Human  Physiology,"  a  monu- 
mental work  of  delightful  readability,  and  one 
which  seems  adequate  and  modern  as  a  physi- 
ology, from  every  point  of  view.  Probably,  in 
future,  there  will  be  a  good  deal  more  attention 
given  to  the  ductless  glands  than  even  Starling 
pays  to  them,  but  at  present  we  must  look  for 
adequate  study  of  these  important  stimulators 
of  mental  activity  to  specialized  texts  such  as 
Bandler's  "The  Endocrines."  The  layman  is 
likely  to  be  most  easily  interested  in  the  duct- 
less glands  by  reading  Herman's  sensational 
essay,  "The  Glands  Regulating  Personality." 
The  experts  decry  it,  as  partly  fictitious,  partly 
pure  assumption,  but  it  has  a  value  for  the 
average  reader  who  needs  to  have  his  scientific 
literature  seasoned  a  bit.  I  am  quite  sure  that 
Herman  will  at  least  put  the  word  "gland"  into 
the  average  vocabulary. 

307 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

The  novice  may,  also,  be  unreservedl}''  re- 
ferred to  one  book  which  treats  physiology 
briefly,  authoritatively,  and  readably.  Dr.  Ar- 
thur Keith's  "The  Engines  of  the  Human 
Body,"  although  written  by  one  of  the  foremost 
medical  men  of  England,  sets  out  to  tell,  not  in 
technical  medical  terms,  but  rather  in  those  of 
the  mechanical  engineer,  something  of  the 
creative  work  of  the  body.  He  treats  it  "not 
in  a  series  of  fragments,  but  in  its  entirety  —  as 
a  complete,  living  and  moving  machine."  The 
effort  is  a  notable  success. 

The  manner  of  the  body's  relation  to  mental 
life,  as  the  layman  understands  it,  is  most 
clearly  appreciated  by  study  of  the  brain  and 
the  nervous  system;  especially  by  a  study  of  the 
special  senses.  The  merging  of  the  studies  of 
physiology  and  psychology  take  place  in  so- 
called  "experimental  psychology"  —  which  is 
largely  a  study  of  the  special  senses.  C.  S. 
Myers's  "Text  Book"  on  this  topic  is  one  of  the 
best  for  the  voluntary  student,  for  it  is  not 
wholly  unmindful  of  the  applications  of  its 
studies  to  practical  affairs. 

In  connection  with  the  descriptive  and  be- 
308 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

havloristic  study  of  the  mind,  it  is  helpful  to 
stop  to  give  special  attention  to  defects  of  he- 
redity and  growth  which  result  in  feeble-minded- 
ness.  So  large  a  percentage  of  the  population  is 
dwarfed  in  its  capacity  for  good  citizenship  by 
limitations  of  mental  development  that  it  is 
highly  important  for  us  to  understand  what  are 
the  characteristics  of  the  mind  which  are  likely 
to  be  shared  by  persons  of  all  mental  levels,  and 
what  ones  are  omitted  from  or  arrested  in  the 
minds  of  the  deficient.  The  stigma  of  defi- 
ciency is  settled  on  the  basis  of  the  Binet- 
Simon  tests  for  mental  age,  or  some  adaptation 
of  them.^ 

^  It  seems  probable  that  the  tests  themselves  are  based 
upon  too  limited  a  view  of  what  constitutes  the  mind. 
Dr.  Henry  C.  Link  feels,  indeed,  that  the  tests  reliably 
measure  only  ability  to  pass  the  tests,  and  that  intelligence  is 
to  be  gauged  rather  by  an  individual's  capacity  to  effect  a 
satisfactory  adjustment  to  his  life  and  his  job.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  legitimately  an  alternative  to,  but  a  partial  cor- 
rection for  intelligence  tests.  For  it  depends  upon  the  phase 
of  life  to  which  a  mind  is  adjusted  to  say  what  degree  of  in- 
telligence is  indicated  by  the  adjustment.  Different  occu- 
pations, different  family  responsibilities,  different  environ- 
ments, make  different  demands  upon  the  personality.  No 
one  is  "adjusted  to  life"  —  he  rather  strives  to  find  the 
corner  or  character  of  life  to  which  he  is  congenial.  A  con- 
tented moron  may  be  better  adjusted  than  a  genius,  but  not, 
thereby,  more  intelligent. 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

The  layman  interested  in  the  civic  effects  of 
low-grade  mentality  is  advised  to  read  Dr.  H. 
H.  Goddard's  *' Human  Efficiency  and  Levels 
of  Intelligence,"  a  provocative  little  book. 
Those  desiring  to  know  something  more  of  the 
present  development  of  tests  should  look  at 
Lewis  M.  Terman's  "The  Measurement  of 
Intelligence."  Dr.  Goddard's  work,  "Feeble- 
Mindedness,"  dilates  on  some  of  the  causes  of 
mental  deficiency,  but  I  have  not  yet  seen  an 
adequate  treatment  of  the  subject  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  physical  and  the  sensory- 
equipment  of  the  feeble-minded ;  and  from  the 
point  of  view  of  what  the  feeble-minded  of  dif- 
ferent mental  ages  share  with  people  normally 
developed,  in  terms  of  analytical  psychology. 
What,  in  mental  terms,  is  the  greatest  common 
denominator  ?  Such  a  study  would  be  highly  valu- 
able to  industrial  managers,  teachers,  statesmen, 
editors,  and  others  who  wish  to  bring  the  largest 
available  amount  of  useful  ideas  to  the  minds  of 
the  great  masses  of  "dull  normal"  people.  A 
nearly  satisfactory  book  on  all  these  aspects  of 
feeble-mindedness  is  Leta  Hollingworth's  "The 
Psychology  of  Subnormal  Children." 
310 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

Neither  have  we  yet  available  any  proved 
method  of  scaling  emotional  stability  or  re- 
sponsiveness, or  of  gauging  native  differences 
in  temperament,  by  test.  Professor  June  E. 
Downey,  of  the  University  of  Wyoming,  has 
devised  some  individual  "will-temperament" 
tests,  but  they  have  not  yet  been  widely  tried 
out  and  her  book  on  the  subject  is  still  in  press.  ^ 
In  short,  the  great  work  of  classifying  likenesses 
and  differences  between  individuals  in  respect 
to  their  native  equipment  lies  before  us.  With 
such  omissions,  descriptive  psychology  is  hardly 
prepared  yet  to  call  itself  truly  descriptive.  At 
present  it  merely  partly  describes,  and  but  par- 
tially explains,  how  a  normal  organism  is  likely 
to  respond  to  selected  types  of  stimulus.  What 
characters  are  most  deeply  and  universally  in- 
grained in  the  mind,  what  are  the  indications 
and  bases  for  superior  intelligence,  and  what 
are  the  measures  and  evidences  of  individual 
variations,  it  passes  over  lightly. 

The  greatest  omission  in  what  usually  passes 
for  psychology,  however,  is  the  failure  to  con- 
sider the  positive  energy  of  the  mind,  and  the 

*  World  Book  Company. 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

significance  which  it  holds  in  explaining  human 
conduct,  human  emotions,  and  human  happi- 
ness. 

It  is,  perhaps,  admitted  that  the  body  has 
energy  which  is  derived  not  from  external  stim- 
ulus to  action,  but  from  its  own  processes  of 
metabolism.  But  the  identity  of  the  mind  and 
body  seems  to  be  forgotten  by  many  psychol- 
ogists when  they  consider  mental  energy.  Ob- 
sessed by  the  doctrine  of  determinism,  the 
classroom  psychologist  fears  to  contemplate  the 
mind  as  an  active,  originating  force,  lest  to  do 
so  might  seem  to  lend  support  to  the  notion  of 
free  will;  so  they  consider  the  mind  as  if  it  were 
a  kind  of  coiled  spring,  capable  of  acting  only 
when  it  is  stepped  on.  They  speak  of  reflexes, 
habits,  and  instincts  as  "modes  of  response," 
merely,  and  not  as  also  pathways  of  action. 
The  propulsion,  the  emotional  drive,  which  re- 
sults from  such  healthy,  active  desires  as  hun- 
ger, sex  craving,  and  the  impulse  for  mere 
bodily  movement  and  exercise,  is  glossed  over. 

The  concentration  of  the  psychologist  upon 
"modes  of  response"  causes  him  to  neglect 
to  analyze  psychic  manifestations  which  may 
312 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

be  regarded  as  "modes  of  action"  —  dancing, 
sport,  work,  play,  drama,  music,  art  —  which 
vary  with  individuals  in  proportion  to  their 
native  endowments  and  cultivated  energies, 
quite  as  sight,  hearing,  pain-sense,  reflexes, 
habits,  instincts,  and  other  so-called  modes  of 
response.  Indeed,  a  habit  is  equally  the  result 
of  self-originating  action  as  of  response  to 
stimulus.  All  of  the  true  instincts  are  energy- 
releases  of  active  organs  which  inherit  the  ten- 
dency to  discharge  their  energy  in  a  certain 
way.  Most  of  the  so-called  instincts  are  prob- 
ably complex  habits  formed  after  birth,  and 
associated  with  primary  instincts  as  acquired 
modes  of  action.  Since  they  carry  with  them 
the  satisfaction  accompanying  discharges  of 
energy,  they  come  in  course  of  time  to  have  an 
apparent  energy  of  their  own.  Probably  this  is 
what  leads  Professor  William  McDougall  to 
base  his  "Social  Psychology"  almost  wholly 
upon  a  certain  repertoire  of  instincts  which  he 
distinguishes  as  customary  modes  of  action. 
Personally,  I  consider  most  of  his  so-called  in- 
stincts merely  as  easily  formed  habits,  com- 
monly associated  with  basic  instincts.  Many  of 

313 


MENTAL  CAUSES  OF  ACCIDENTS 

these  habits  may  be  dissociated  from  their  in- 
stincts, which  may  attach  themselves,  so  to 
speak,  to  new  and  quite  different  habits.  As  an 
explanation  for  the  active  forces  of  the  mind, 
Professor  McDougall's  catalogue  of  instincts 
seems  to  me  to  be  partial,  and  ofttimes  mis- 
leading. They  explain  the  conduct  of  those 
minds  only  which  happen  to  have  the  tenden- 
cies he  describes.  Nevertheless,  most  people  do 
develop  those  tendencies,  and  his  observations 
are  a  useful  guide  to  the  study  of  the  forces  that 
actuate  the  majority  of  people.  For  a  more  fun- 
damental discussion  of  some  of  the  chief  moti- 
vations of  the  mind,  I  prefer  Dr.  E.  B.  Holt's 
"The  Freudian  Wish,"  or  Sigmund  Freud's 
own  "General  Introduction  to  Psychoanalysis." 
If  the  reader  wishes  to  review  both  McDougall 
and  Freud  in  one  book,  he  will  get  them  in 
Tansley's  "New  Psychology,"  already  cited, 
for  Tansley,  hospitably,  takes  them  both  into 
his  system. 

The  reader  who  wishes  to  investigate  the 
problem  of  adjustment  will  find  in  Frederic 
Lyman  Wells's  "Mental  Adjustment,"  in 
Bernard  Hart's  "The  Psychology  of  Insanity," 

314 


APPROACH  TO  PSYCHOLOGY 

and  in  Dr.  William  A.  White's  *"The  Founda- 
tions of  Psychiatry,"  and  the  same  author's 
"  Principles  of  Mental  Hygiene,"  all  the  texts 
he  will  need  to  complete  his  survey  of  the  full 
scope  of  psychology. 


THE  END 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


L9-Series  444 


AA    000  958  655    3 


